Let me talk to you.

Not much more frosts my butt than scammers. I detest everything about these lowlife scumbags. One of the most recent scams to surface is being labeled "Whole Pig Butchering". This deceit involves cryptocurrency, Microsoft and the world of us senior citizens. Sometimes these vermin scammers achieve swiping a geriatic's entire life's savings. Should you have the interest, I previously talked about scammers in Chapter 13 of this book that I called Scams. Check it out if you so desire.

I do not use cryptocurrency myself. If you do the information contained in this commentary may be something you might want to be alerted to. Are you aware one Bitcoin equates to approximately 31008.10 US dollars (as of July 4, 2023)? Yes, you read that correctly and this figure comes from the Forbes currency conversion rates. As you can deduce, cryptocurrency is a Big Money investment. New tricks and technologies are the tools most often employed by scammers in various charades to drain victims of their bank accounts. In some instances, entire life's savings.

Here is how these travesties often go. They start with the scammer succeeding in locking their victim's computer up. Considering you can be anybody in the world you desire to become if you know the right three keystrokes it takes to do so (a scary proposition, isn't it?), locking another person's computer is much easier to do than many users may be aware of.

Soon after this occurs, the victim receives a warm-hearted and friendly message from the scammer (do not believe a word of it]. That message informs the intended martyr they need to contact Microsoft in an urgent, expeditious manner. Pure poppycock! Microsoft states on their website they never include telephone numbers to call with any of their error or alert messages sent to customers.

In addition, Microsoft never asks for customers to pay them in cryptocurrency and advises them to be wary of downloading anything from third-party websites. Those third-party websites are where scammers usually lurk..hiding...waiting. if you find yourself in this position, and have not already rebooted your computer, you are begging for whatever befalls you going forward in this scam.

In case you are not aware, cryptocurrency is digital money. There are several forms of it speculators dabble in. The purchasing, selling and exchanging of Bitcoin has become a popular pastime for many people.

Let's return back to cryptocurrency scam pawns. The scammer, posing as a Microsoft representative, advises their pigeon a diagnostic test indicates their bank account has been hacked. The scammer inquires the name of who the victim banks with, and informs them they should be transferred to the fraud department. Scammers may add layers such as telling the poor sap being deceived they need to obtain a new Social Security number. They may demand to know the dupe's monetary account numbers and how many funds are sustained in each one of them.

A ruse scammers may use is to tell their patsy the Social Security Administration will transfer their funds into a cryptocurrency account. Money laundering is frequently the scammer's motive for this requirement. Also, transferring US dollars into cryptocurrency is much faster than the scammer demanding gift cards or money from their unsuspecting sap.

Most cryptocurrency exchanges are located in China. However, a cryptocurrency computer scam has been linked to Poland, and another to Belarus. Some of these exchanges open branches in places like the Cayman Islands.

The transactions of legitimate crypto trading firms are public and observable online. Here is how they function. The company provides traders a "key," or a personal account number. Scammers operate by not only these means, but at the same time their scapegoat is conducting the transaction the scammer creates another account that is unknown to their bait. Once funds are verified, the dollars are converted into cryptocurrency and fly the coop into the scammer's possession.

Here is another known method of conducting a cryptocurrency scam. The theft often begins when the scammer transmits their intended victim an email somewhere along the lines of informing them "it was great catching up with you yesterday, (or the other day, or whatever way the scammer words the notation)." Once the receiver responds to that message, if only to tell the scammer they emailed the wrong person, the scammer plunges into attempting to build a trusting relationship with the soon-to-be scammed.

Eventually, the scammer mentions good investments, or may refer their puppet to a valid website to check the opportunities out for themself. In this case, what the scammer has actually accomplished is to send the stooge to a site or app where all funds are drained blood-dry by the scammer. This triggers the "whole pig butchery" as the scammer's intent is going for the entire hog, enchilada, or whatever fancified term one may choose to state, to describe snatching the entire wealth their unhappy quest has. To sweeten the enticement, the scammer may even allow their prey to withdraw a small sum before closing in for the slaughter.

Didn't someone once say if something sounds too good to be true it probably isn't, or words to that effect?

Cryptocurrency provides new wrinkles for many unsuspecting people, with senior citizens among the chief vulnerable. Do yourself a major favor, learn what you need to know to avoid these predicaments.

Just wondering, did I casually mention how much I detest scammers? I think I came right out and said so. Hate scammers!

You didn't ask...but.