this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024

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Beware of this scam. Proton swap is not an official proton product. (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 115 points 7 months ago (5 children)

If proton swap were an official proton product, it would still be a scam because crypto is a scam.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

It’s not a scam if you use it to buy stuff though

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Are you really "buying" something with crypto in that case, or is it just a complicated money laundering scheme?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You could look at it as a currency conversion, then buying a product with that new currency.

I’m not fussed about the semantics tbh, as long as I get my drugs I’m happy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (2 children)

You could look at it as a currency conversion, then buying a product with that new currency.

Yes, that's how money laundering works. Whether it's crypto, gold, or fine art, the end result is still the same. You get drugs, they get clean cash, everyone is happy.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

Holy shit, I never realised how much I love money laundering

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

The question is, who's soil are we laundering out of the money? 😁

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Until I can pay my mortgage, utilities, and groceries with crypto, or can buy a majority of consumer items, it is basically useless to 99% of people

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago

They'd lose a lot of credibility if this was legit.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

It's only a scam if you don't immediately use it to buy drugs.

[+] [email protected] -22 points 7 months ago (3 children)

As stupid as I think Crypto is, it's no longer purely a scam.

It's now packaged into assets like ETFs and recommended as a diversification tool (though I disagree with the Economist's analysis on this one). So it is in some sense a real asset at this point.

But crypto is a ouji board with a planchette pointing at random prices and the hands pushing it are a bunch of US banks and guys with monkey avatars that cost more than my house on X (both the site and drug).

[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

The fact you can invest in something does not stop it being a scam.

That's kind of like the cornerstone of many scams.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (2 children)

You said it yourself. Crypto has nothing to stabilise its value. It is entirely speculative. There is three options to make money with crypto. Sell it to someone that believes in it more than you do. Sell it to someone that believes he can make more of a quick buck than you, or have the gamble work, that it ends up becoming a legit payment system and have the value explode and stabilise there.

In the first two cases you just try to fuck over another gambler. In the third case you yourself gamble.

It is always possible that the hype collapses or crypto gets banned globally. Whoever is left holding it then got scammed by the others.

While in the beginning many investors believed it to become a viable payment system eventually, now most are just looking to not be the last in line to get scammed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That doesn't make it a scam, it's just speculative.

There's also the belief that it's safer than individual currencies, or that it's less vulnerable to inflation of the money supply. Those are legitimate reasons to buy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Still with any individual currency there is a market where mandated by law you can pay in this currency, or where you can pay taxes in that currency. So zheir value has a real and a speculative part. Crypto only has a speculative part and that part is often and strongly influenced by deliberate manipulation.

And if yet another crypto currencies is pushed it is highly questionable if there is a serious intent to deliver on the promises made to its laternuse or how much is just scamming people into an ICO and then running with that money.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure I'm buyin into the ban concern.

It's a concern, for sure, just really hard to see it implemented.

Look at piracy, torrenting, usenet, etc. So long as people can make encrypted connections, crypto will continue.

I think that governments can, at best, disrupt things. But given governments are a smaller body count than users, my money is on those dedicated users staying one step ahead of the hammer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Look at piracy, torrenting, usenet, etc. So long as people can make encrypted connections, crypto will continue.

Do you mean cryptography in general or cryptocurrencies in particular? Because cryptocurrencies ultimately do need an interface with other currencies, or some economy, where you can pay with them. If you cannot buy any real product or service with it, it has no value. Lets take Darknet market drug dealers for instance. They are not selling drugs because they like bitcoins and buy other drugs for themselves with it. They are selling drugs and exchanging the bitcoin into some fiat currency, so they can buy normal stuff with it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

People invested in Ponzi scheme as they thought it wasn't a scam. The same for crypto.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"Powered by Swiss Privacy" 😂

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

lmao

[–] [email protected] 50 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It has a checkmark, so it must be legit, right?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Isn't twitter just scams, bots, and bots running scams at this point?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Don't just give away secrets in the open like that 🤫

[–] brbposting 43 points 7 months ago (1 children)

“Fixed”!

Source / Nitter

[–] [email protected] 42 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Love that “whoopsy daisy, sorry we didn’t catch that”

[–] brbposting 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

“We are still totally in Geneva though!”

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

"Although we don't follow the Geneva convention but that's a topic for another day."

[–] [email protected] 37 points 7 months ago

The team is already on it.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 months ago (2 children)

@testeronious

You know Proton has grown big when others take the time and effort to create scams like that.

It's no longer a tiny operation which is easily ignored or forgotten.

Question is what kind of scam is it? It looks like a crypto scam on the surface. But could it be more? Password phishing? Session hijacking?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I don't have more details about the scam, I just saw the picture and posted it here

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I'm guessing they'll want you to log in. they'll use those credentials to get data from protonpass and try to breach other sites? ( Like crypto sites ( e.g.: binance ).

Maybe even mass send email to the contacts about this great new platform they found at >insert dodgy link

I agree with you. The logo/background all definitely looks proton style. Somebody made an effort to make it look like an actual product.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

@fluckx Yupp .... and this is the lamest excuse I've seen in a long time ...

This is bullshit and they try to hide it. And they know it.

That Proton logo font is unique to Proton. These guys have studied this post: https://proton.me/blog/new-visual-universe

@protonmail @protonprivacy Don't let this pass. Let these guys feel they've trespassed into the wrong garden.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 7 months ago

Check out my easy to guide to spotting a scam.

Are they peddling crypto?

Yes: Then it's a scam.

No: Might still be a scam. Proceed with caution.

[–] akilou 13 points 7 months ago

Send this to Protons general counsel. I'm sure they'd appreciate it

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I agree with you on all of that.

Basically eth and BTC are the only cryptos that make any sense, ICOs are scams, most other coins are scams, and stuff like the USD coin show that even the legitimate sounding ones are incredibly fragile.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 7 months ago

Dear Proton. Don't do Crypto shit please.

Or at least do better integration with Proton Drive and Proton Calendar on Linux first lol