There is a crypto currency exchange called TeslaCoin.

Started by Elon Musk or anything to do with him?

NO! Not officially – it’s a name chosen to benefit from association with Elon Musk and the Tesla car company.

Scammers tell you Teslacoin is going to be worth a fortune and you just need to invest $250 to start with them.

But it’s not actually a crypto currency – it’s an exchange where you can buy and sell crypto currencies.

Is it a good investment?

You’ll have to make your own mind up on that – as some people make a fortune in crypto currencies and others lose a fortune.

It’s a risky game.

But don’t get caught out believing TeslaCoin is guaranteed to succeed because of Elon Musk – not true.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

The email says I have had 0.7 of a Bitcoin transferred to my name and I just have to click to accept the payment.

The value of Bitcoins goes up and down dramatically but 0.7 Bitcoins converts to thousands of dollars.

Who wouldn’t want such a windfall?

To accept the transfer you click the link, which does not get you any Bitcoins but rather the website of crypto Code and a sales pitch for their software.

“Unleash The Power Of CryptoCurrency and Earn $15,000 in 24 Hours”

So, it’s just speculation on the price of cryto currencies of which Bitcoin is the most famous.

Is it possible to make lots of money speculating on Bitcoin? Yes. Many people have done so.

But the price can go down just as easily as it can go up and then you lose.

There is a disclaimer at the bottom of the website page

“Trading can generate significant profits but is also highly speculative and involves a high level of risk which can result in partial or full loss of funds”

The email claimed I had Bitcoins transferred to me and that was untrue.

The website claims you can make $15,000 in a day but the disclaimer warns you might lose everything.

Not a good deal to make. For most people it’s safer to choose another investment, but if you’re going to invest in Bitcoin then do your research first and don’t respond to email offers.

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We are all getting used to the idea of cryptocurrencies such as the attention getting Bitcoin and Ethereum, but there are also weird ones such as Shibu Inu which was started largely as a joke. The creator made hundreds of trillions of coins, so that they can only ever be worth a tiny fraction of a cent each.

To increase their value, various organisations try to buy up Shibu Inu coins and burn them i.e. destroy them thereby increasing the value of the remaining coins.

People even have burn parties where they all contribute some coins and communally destroy them.

Is that Weird? Yes!

This isn’t a scam – it’s all perfectly legal and people knowingly destroy the coins.

But, scammers want to join in of course – to make money at other people’s expense.

A scam email tells a story of people working together to burn Shibu Inu but first of all making millions of dollars.

They say you just have to follow the instructions to buy lots of Shibu Inu coins then join  2 projects where you will make hundreds to thousands of dollars each day as robots automatically trade cryptocurrency for you.

Then you donate some coins and it all gets burned, except for the dollars you made and hence keep.

This is a scam.

By getting people to buy lots of Shibu Inu coins, the scammers hope to push up the value so they can then sell theirs and make a profit. This makes the price drop and the recent purchasers lose money.

That’s the classic pump and dump scam.

You may choose to buy Shibu Inu as an investment or just to take part in the growth of cybercurrency, but don’t join anything advertised by cold calls or spam emails as these are almost always perpetrated by criminals.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

You might think that it’s difficult to invent your own cybercurrency but it’s not really so difficult and many hundreds of people have done so, in some form.

They are extremely unlikely to become as valuable as say Bitcoin, but people make these for a variety of reasons.

One recent one is called Pope Inu and features a dog dressed like a Pope.

These are called meme coins meaning it’s based on an idea or theme.

The presale price for these coins was set at $0.0000001 per coin although the value once it’s in circulation depends on supply and demand.

People who understand cybercurrencies and these meme coins may want to buy into Pope Inu but anyone chasing a quick way to make money should steer clear as meme coins are more for fun and novelty than anyone actually making money.

If you receive emails or see adverts telling you there are riches to be made from these coins – ignore them.

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An email titled “Ride the Wave of Bitcoin and Earn $13,000 in Exactly 24 Hours”.

Scammers seem to love Bitcoin, probably because you do see on the news occasionally that the value of Bitcoins has risen sharply. They do go down in value as well but that’s less newsworthy unless someone famous has lost money gambling on Bitcoin.

The email continues

“In the past 90 days, 3 people saw their lives change dramatically after investing in Bitcoin”

Doesn’t say whether their lives changed for the better or for the worse but you are supposed to assume it’s for the better.

Then the email explains a little

“The Bitcoin Code is a group  reserved exclusively to people who jump at the chance that Bitcoin offers and have quietly amassed a fortune in doing so”

If it’s exclusive then why are millions of these emails sent out to random unknown people?

It’s just a standard scam – offer lots of money for no effort, but the only people who make money are the scammers.

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Cyber currency is a form of digital money i.e. money that exists only in the digital world.

Currencies are a means of exchanging value e.g. I give you a gold coin and in return you give me some food. Coin based currencies switched to being paper based a long time ago to make life simpler. The £5 note in your pocket says … promise to pay the bearer the value of the bill but that has little meaning as we all accept paper currency has value and cannot switch back to using precious metals for all transactions.

Cyber currencies (or crypto currencies) have no paper version, no coins and no promise to pay anything. They exist purely in digital form and have no intrinsic value – only the value assigned by people according to how much supply and demand there is.

They are designed using cryptography i.e. codes which can make transactions tamper proof and ensure each unit of crypto currency cannot be spent more than once.

These currencies started out with very little value or interest except for anyone but people looking to the future when these currencies take over from the traditional.  Bitcoin originally was valued at less than 1 cent per coin but in 2021 reached over $60,000 per coin.

Also in 2021, the market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies was more than $2 trillion. Some people who bought Bitcoin early on, made a fortune.

Stablecoins

These are less well known and are a variation on cryptocurrencies. They were developed to counter the price volatility of regular cryptocurrencies. The value of a Stablecoin is linked to something real world e.g. a standard currency. These are not backed by central banks, unlike the standard currencies. One of the best known is Gemini dollars.

The Benefits of Cryptocurrency:

• There is no need for physical storage, safekeeping and shipping complexities
• Can eliminate intermediaries and reduce the costs associated with cross-border transfers
• Can make it possible to include groups of people who were previously excluded from the economy, by not having a bank account
• Cryptocurrency transactions can avoid tracking by government or other authorities

The Danger of Hacking

Cryptocurrency cannot be physically stolen in the way that cash can be, but it can be hacked and exchanges where crypto currrency is traded have been a big target for this.

Criminals Love Bitcoin

As well as possible hacking, criminals love Bitcoin as payment for various illegal activities including ransomware which almost always demands the victim pay in Bitcoin thus making it near impossible to reverse the payment or identify who receives the money.

More recently criminals have changed to preferring Monero for illegal payoffs, but ransomware scammers still demand Bitcoin as its easier for most law abiding citizens to get if they want to pay the ransom.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.