Financial safety is important, so we wanted to break down the five most common scams and how to spot them.
All transactions made with crypto are permanent and irreversible. Because of this, it’s important to be aware of existing scams so that you can keep your funds safe.
1. Email Scams: Deposit Needed to Access Your Funds
Be skeptical of any person or company claiming they need more funds to “unlock” or access your existing account balance. Fraudsters will often send emails from seemingly legitimate email addresses making money requests to validate your account.
Shakepay would never put a hold on your money in exchange for a deposit.
If you receive an email from an individual claiming to be a Shakepay representative requesting funds, please inform customer support right away.
2. Job Scam
Fraudulent employers seek out job applicants who have posted resumes online and approach them with realistic job offers in an attempt to steal their crypto and personal information.
What To Look For
Recruiters contacting you for a job you didn't apply for
The person contacting you has a non-business email such as @hotmail.com or @gmail.com.
When looking up the company on Google, you find that they have little to no online presence.
The job posting contains spelling/grammar errors or promises an unrealistic salary for the position.
The company website is incomplete or non-existent.
Recruiter requests that you buy or exchange crypto on their behalf. Be particularly skeptical of jobs asking you to open a Shakepay account.
Recruiter requests that you send them money.
3. Social Media Giveaway Scams
Fraudsters use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube to impersonate celebrities or companies, then publish posts claiming to be “giving away” free crypto.
What To Look For
Requests money and/or promises an unrealistic amount of money in return.
Account usernames don’t match names of the impersonated company or celebrity. Be weary of letters that look the same when they're capitalized Example: Lower case L is l and upper-case i is I
The giveaway is not posted on official website, blog, or social media page
Grammatical errors
Links directing you to unrelated external sites. Don't click on links to websites that you do not recognize.
Legitimate Shakepay correspondence is only done through our official blog, Twitter, Facebook emails from @shakepay.com or support chat.
4. Investment Scams
Investment scams use investment, or trading opportunities to promise you high returns if you entrust them with your crypto. Often, they cut off all communication and your money is lost.
What To Look For
Returns look unrealistic or too good to be true.
Time limit to send funds or you’ll lose the opportunity
Minimal paperwork, numbered companies, or offshore bank accounts
Requesting you to transfer large amounts of cryptocurrency to people or companies that you don’t know
Company has little to no online presence or reviews
You are encouraged to complete a transaction due to a time constraint.
5. Fake Exchanges
Be very careful of new platforms or exchanges that operate from countries outside of Canada. All legitimate Canadian virtual currency dealers are required to register with the federal government (FINTRAC) and you can verify their registration by visiting the FINTRAC website.
What To Look For
Be wary of About Us pages that list employees with no verifiable credentials.
Reputable exchanges will display volume and market trade data in real time. Be suspicious of any platform that requires you to make an account before having access to this data
Be wary of platforms and exchanges that are based out of countries which are tax havens
We recommend transacting with crypto platforms that are publicly verifiable and we always encourage you to read reviews that have been written on public forums.
Fake exchanges may also try to impersonate Shakepay. Here are tips to protect yourself from scammers pretending to be Shakepay via fake social media accounts, websites or other channels:
Always check who the email sender is when communicating with Shakepay support. Shakepay emails will always come from @shakepay.co or @shakepay.com (examples: newsletter@shakepay.com, [email protected])
Only trust communication coming or being posted from our official channels.
Website and mobile app: Our official website is https://shakepay.com/, or use the mobile app on your phone. Only download the Shakepay app from the official app stores: the Apple App Store for iPhone users and The Google Play Store for Android users.
Telephone: Shakepay support does not have an inbound phone number; if you find a number listed for Shakepay please do not call it.
Social Media: Shakepay’s official and sole accounts are:
Shakepay will never ask you to share your account password with us.
Shakepay will never ask or require you to send funds to a wallet address. If someone is asking you to send funds please reach out to our support team to report it.
If you have been scammed and need to report the incident, you can find more information on how to do that here.