Don't fall victim to Cryptocurrency SCAMS!

As a cybersecurity professional I won't be the first to tell you with confidence there are a lot of people out there trying to take what you have. Between SMS text messages, phone SIM swaps, robocalls, phishing e-mails, pop-ups, hyperlinks on social media, the list goes on and on. The best piece of advice I can give you is to always go to the source. Take the extra time to determine is it really worth the risk of clicking on that link.

Cryptocurrency is a HOT topic in the financial world and everyone wants a piece of the action. Be cautious of those "Free give-aways", airdrops, and "Send me 1ETH and I will send you 10ETH in return" scams. YouTube and other social media platforms is thick with them. YouTube has improved their AI to detect and delete these nefarious actors, but they are still out there.

Some good rules of thumb:

- Always go to the website source. Avoid SMS/Social Media posted hyperlinks as much as possible.

- Contact your phone carrier and setup "Do Not Port" phone number options without you being physically at your phone carrier store. Have them annotate your account to not allow over the phone porting with out physical face-to-face validation. I do know T-Mobile supports this and I am sure other carriers do something similar.

- Keep your phone and computers patched and updated. One of the biggest reasons cryptocurrency accounts get hacked is that the source you are using to access your crypto assets is already compromised.

- Use a separate unique e-mail to manage your finances and cryptocurrency.

- Change your passwords frequently. Use a good password manager. I am a huge fan Apple's Keychain Access. However, there are plenty of other non-Apple solutions.

- If your crypto asset manager offers "IP Whitelisting", use it!

The above is not an all inclusive list, but enough to get you started. Be safe!

-Rich Ackerman