Cryptocurrency users fall prey to fake Facebook posts

Social media giant, Facebook, has been making headlines recently. This has been so after many of the social platform users were misled by posts from fake accounts. The latest and probably the one that has bitten most is a post from a fake Bitmain account that has been swindling clueless Facebook users. The scandal adds to the growing list of cryptocurrency users to fall prey to fake Facebook posts.

The misleading post

“We are excited to be partnering with Bitcoin”, reads the post from the fake Bitmain account. It went on to inform users of a give-away offer to anyone who would send 0.2 BTC for purposes of address verification.

According to the post, Bitmain, which is a bitcoin mining company, had finalized a partnership deal with the social media giant, Facebook. The post targeted Bitcoin owners on the social media platform and directed them to transfer their Bitcoins in exchange for a good pay-out. The deal was made more lucrative by the fact that the imposter had already advertised the established partnership betweenFacebook and Bitmain.

Post structure

The structure of the post was very luring and it is no surprise that a number of people fell prey to the con. The post was baited to perfection and was hard to labelit as a fake.

Cases of cryptocurrency fraud on social media platforms have been on the rise especiallyduring this turbulent period in the cryptocurrency sector. The case calls formore caution from both social media platform managers and users.

The risk is high on Facebook than it is on twitter simply because the structure of the former allows them to hide behind its limited search functions. This enables fake accounts to be created in a simple manner and it is difficult to trace account owners who are out to earn from fraudulent posts.