Beware: Bitcoin scam from Nigeria

Spam scammers are currently relying entirely on the digital currency Bitcoin. They call it "beta tester" or entice with a "free trial account" with no less than 2,545.67 euros ready to go. "Your account has been activated and you can start earning unlimited amounts of money with Bitcoin code," they say enticingly. "Confirm your account now, otherwise it will expire in 24 hours!"

Anonymous senders

The senders of the promotional emails for the cryptocurrency, which has been soaring for months, hide behind masked addresses. Domains such as jujuoffers.com or thebitcoincode.co are registered anonymously, hiding behind supposed trading sites for the virtual currency, which is currently worth more than 30,000 euros per bitcoin - an increase to four times since January 2020. Such price explosions always attract scammers.

Whereas professional spam mailers used to advertise the potency pill Viagra and ominous mini-companies as future price rockets on the stock market, a wave of Bitcoin advertising is currently sweeping through email inboxes. Instead of supposedly smartphones or the possibility of becoming a part-owner of the million-dollar fortune of a sadly deceased business magnate in Kenya, Togo or Nigeria with a small financial outlay, the senders, most of whom operate from Nigeria, are praising risk-free participation in the new Bitcoin wealth.

Fraud money

Anyone who bites because they believe that the 2,500 euros provided free of charge cannot cost any money will be amazed at how imaginatively the online scammers, known as "scammers," proceed. Although a separate penal code in Nigeria has been punishing so-called advance fee fraud as "419 scam" since 1995, the net criminals, organized in gangs, keep finding ways to get their victims' money. The police and judiciary simply cannot get to grips with the phenomenon as long as the addressees in Europe and America allow themselves to be seduced by their own greed.

Whereas the network attacks used to be aimed at getting recipients in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States to transfer a few hundred or thousand euros to West Africa in order to be able to safely transfer to Germany a fortune worth millions that had supposedly become abandoned there, the current focus is apparently on luring users to alleged Bitcoin exchanges that the cybercriminals themselves have set up.

No upper limit

"There is no limit to how much you can earn using this system," an email reads, "so it makes even more sense to at least try it." Good for the criminal gangs, who sometimes even offer starting credits of five Bitcoin, the equivalent of more than 150,000 euros, in promotional emails: Those who fall for the trick have to provide not only their name, but also a bank account or credit card details in order to get their desired winnings. This opens up direct access to the customers' accounts for the supposedly so generous providers of "test access". Not speculating with Bitcoins, but sending Bitcoin spam thus becomes a profitable business model. Although not for the recipients, of course - because they pay with their losses what the spammers gain.

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