How To Spot False Bitcoin Exchanges

By Jamie Green – Crypto Specialist

Often, on social media, you'll see a link saying something like "Buy Bitcoin for 5% below market value. Save well!” Most of these are marketing tricks to get you to visit their website and use their fake exchange to ‘buy and sell Bitcoin’, as detailed on The Wall Street Journal.

How can you spot the fake ones?

You need to confirm that any site you go to has the format of HTTPS, as HTTP is not protected. If the site is secure, then it will have HTTPS and any site without an S in the end is something you need to avoid.

One other thing to keep an eye out for is false deals that advertise exchanges and sales through payment sites such as PayPal and Venmo. They usually have a form to fill out where you put in your information, however they never send you the cash for selling crypto.

Many of these fake exchanges only last a day on the web. If you want to confirm the authenticity of a site for buying and selling Bitcoin or another crypto, then you should check it against the original site for the project. This way you can verify the platform better and potentially save yourself from getting scammed.

When it comes to figuring out Bitcoin wallet scams, that can get complicated. The purpose behind these frauds is to gain your information and use it to get money.

As with fake Bitcoin sites, be very cautious and smart. You need to keep an eye out for red flags.

Does the name of the wallet site try to look like another well-known Bitcoin wallet? Apart from the obvious, it can be difficult to tell if a wallet address is wrong. A good practice is to ask your peers if anyone has ever used the wallet or if you can get an example and see if they’re valid on their respective block.

Don’t forget you can use our trusted platform to sell crypto UK from your trusted cryptocurrency broker.