Scammers are tricking people to log into fake cryptocurrency exchange sites, and they're incredibly hard to spot

scam truck green sign

As cryptocurrencies like bitcoin surge in popularity, so do scams.

As seen in the cryptocurrency subreddit, scammers have found a way to make their website addresses (URLs) look just like the authentic URLs of some popular cryptocurrency exchange sites, like Binance and Bittrex.

Unfortunately for the unsuspecting crypto trader, using your login credentials on a scam site can lead to theft of your cryptocurrency or your regular government-minted money.

Cautious cryptocurrency traders are absolutely right to look for that green "https" tag that usually comes before a website's URL in a browser address bar. That tag helps users identify if a website is legitimate or not. But they may want to have a closer look at the URL next time they sign into their cryptocurrency exchange.

Check out how scammers can get by your defenses, even if you think you're being vigilant:

Usually, you can tell if a website isn't legitimate if it doesn't have the green "https" that comes before a website's URL.

Reddit user "chrysotileman" posted a screenshot of a fake cryptocurrency exchange site "coinsmarkets.com." If you're vigilant, it's easy to spot that it's not a legitimate site or a legitimate entity running the site because it doesn't have the proper certification to show that's it's trusted.

What you're looking for is a green "Secure" and "https" before the website's URL address, which is a sign that the site and company obtained the proper SSL (secure sockets layer) certificates. Obtaining an SSL certificate shows that the company behind the site is trusted.

Coinsmarkets.com doesn't have either the green "Secure" or "https" before its URL address. Instead, it has a grayed out "Not Secure" and a regular "http" before the URL.

Usually, scam sites are identified and taken down pretty quickly. If you try to visit coinsmarkets.com now, you'll be met with an error message.

But some scammers have found ways to display the green "Secure" and "https" in the website URL address, and they make an incredibly subtle change to the site's address.

At first glance, this URL for the popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance looks perfectly legitimate. You can clearly see the green "https" before the Binance website URL.

It isn't clear how scammers obtain an SSL certificate, which allows them to add that re-assuring green "https" to the front of the URL. At the same time, it's also pretty easy to get an SSL certificate from a less reputable certificate issuer.

A closer look reveals small dots under each instances of the letter "n" in the word "binance," which shouldn't be there.

Those two dots under the Binance URL mean that you're not actually looking at or using the real Binance site. Instead, you're looking at a totally different site made by scammers to look nearly identical to the Binance site.

And since the site looks familiar and the URL checks out at first glance, unsuspecting users type in their login credentials, which can then be recorded by the scammers. Once they have your account login credentials, scammers can do whatever they want in your account, including stealing your cryptocurrency and even stored USD funds.

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