Crypto Scammers Target Would-Be Bitcoin SV Miners

One of the oldest tactics for scammers on the web is to register a domain with a very similar spelling to an official site, make it look exactly the same, and proceed to scam people intending to use the real site. This is why some crypto exchanges like Binance have a reminder on their login page to “always check the URL bar” in the browser because especially in cryptocurrency, these tactics can create powerful, irreversible harm.

This happened over the weekend for one of the larger Bitcoin SV pools, SVPool.com, which sent an urgent e-mail to everyone signed up on their platform informing them of the scam. According to the e-mail, the poser site uses the .co extension and, after signing up, users are encouraged to spend crypto to buy alleged Bitcoin SV hashing power.

The site is a mirror image of the official SVPool.com site.

The e-mail scam warning from SVPool.com official reads:

“When clicking through the dupe site, many of the pages results in a 404 error, and in some cases, it takes you to their registrar’s error page. The site uses SVPool’s genuine social media handles to make things look at authentic as possible.

“We filled out the registration form to gain access to the client area, they are asking for BTC in exchange for SV hashing power.

“We’ve used the wallet explorer on Blockchair to determine that no transactions have gone to the listed wallet. We assume that people who are looking for SVPool.com are savvy enough to realize the .co scam.”

Changes Bring Opportunities for Scam Artists

Whenever a major change happens in cryptocurrency, scammers are presented with a host of opportunities – everything from “assisting people in securing their free fork coins” (by getting them to divulge their private keys) to creating entire wallets and hosted wallet services with the express intention of scamming become easier to execute.

Scams have existed almost as long as Bitcoin itself, and this particular scam isn’t very notable except in its failed execution. SVPool.com could have the domain yanked if they were a registered trademark, but they don’t appear to have that ability, so their only best recourse is to ensure that users understand where the genuine site can be found.

If you or anyone you know have been victimized by a crypto scam, or were the target of an attempt, please get in touch with this reporter or anyone at CCN immediately in order to warn the rest of the community and world at large.

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