Situational scams occur when a large event happens, either planned or unexpected, and scammers will try to take advantage of unsuspecting or vulnerable people. The most common scenario for this type of scam are natural disasters. Scammers will create websites or Facebook groups claiming to collect funds for disaster relief and ask for crypto to be sent. The scammers will then just pocket the money and wait for the next disaster to strike.
Holidays are other occasions when situational scams are quite prevalent. The scammers will offer good deals for in demand products like electronics, video game systems, or other unique and hard to find items on various e-commerce sites. They will demand crypto as payment and bank on the idea that you are more focused on obtaining the item than considering the validity of the seller.
To protect yourself from these types of scams, do you research on the entities involved to ensure they are legitimate. Take your time to consider if the deal being offered is too good to be true and ask yourself why they are asking for cryptocurrency and not working within the confines of traditional online retailers.
If you need to report an incident or you have fallen victim to this type of scam, reach out to our Live Chat support or submit a request at support@kraken.com.
Additional resources for reporting and learning about fraud:
- https://www.ssa.gov/scam/
- https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2020/cryptocurrency-investments.html
- https://www.ftc.gov/imposter
- https://ic3.gov/
- https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-cryptocurrency
- https://www.fbi.gov/news/podcasts/inside-the-fbi-holiday-scams-120120
- https://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/report-signalez-eng.htm
- https://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/scams-fraudes/victim-victime-eng.htm
- https://eba.europa.eu/contacts/complaints/frauds-and-scams
- https://www.ebf.eu/ebf-media-centre/cyberscams/