You might have heard about Facebook’s grand plans for a global cryptocurrency – Libra. Whilst there is a lot of excitement surrounding this cryptocurrency, scammers are already coming out of the gate and claiming they will sell you the crypto, though it hasn’t even been launched as of yet.
Fraudsters are creating fake websites that are being advertised on FB and other sites all over the internet claiming they can sell you Libra coins. According to the Washington Post, the websites are professional looking and use official logos which means if you’re not careful you will get taken advantage of.
Roughly a dozen fake accounts, pages and groups scattered across Facebook and its photo-sharing app Instagram present themselves as official hubs for the digital currency, in some cases offering to sell Libra at a discount if viewers visit potentially fraudulent, third-party websites.
Washington Post
This is a serious issue that will undermine the trust of Libra and those who get burnt by these scammers will be much less enthusiastic once the real deal is available in 2020.
This is not an entirely new thing as there have been a number of scammers who took advantage of thousands when Bitcoin and cryptos were at the peak of their popularity last year and the year before.
Locally there was even a community allegedly working for SPURT (a crypto-currency which doesn’t seem to exist) in Bulawayo.
