比特幣和其他數字產品本質上是一項投資，我們中的許多人都不會用來購買雜貨或汽油

大約11年前，當丹尼斯·赫恩（Dennis Heun）報告了美國銀行家的付款網絡和數據安全時，我參加了芝加哥的一次比特幣會議，該會議實際上是在吹捧加密貨幣並回答好奇的訪問者的問題。

About 11 years ago, I attended a bitcoin conference in Chicago while reporting on payments networks and data security for American Banker. The event essentially touted cryptocurrency and answered questions from curious onlookers.

大約11年前，我參加了芝加哥的一次比特幣會議，同時報告了美國銀行家的支付網絡和數據安全性。該事件實質上吹捧著加密貨幣，並回答了好奇的圍觀者的問題。

One question and its answer come to mind again today because wealthy folks who have been pushing bitcoin and other digital products for a long time view the current president and his administration as avid supporters.

一個問題及其答案今天再次想到，因為很長一段時間以來一直將比特幣和其他數字產品推向現任總統及其政府狂熱的支持者的富人。

The question at that conference was “Who runs bitcoin?” The answer was “No one! This is one of the beauties!”

該會議的問題是“誰經營比特幣？”答案是“沒人！這是美女之一！”

Well, OK. Not an answer that would excite me, but to get more specific, it meant bitcoin is an open-source software that anyone can use and build on. That is, essentially, what it was then and is now. Years ago, of course, that brought frowns from traditional bankers and payments execs, but high-fives from folks building applications and services as part of this new ecosystem.

好，好。這不是會激發我的答案，而是要更具體，這意味著比特幣是一個可以使用和構建的開源軟件。也就是說，當時是什麼，現在是什麼。當然，幾年前，這引起了傳統的銀行家和付款高管的皺眉，但作為該新生態系統的一部分，人們的frows forks frows frows frows frows frows frows frows frows frows。

My point here is to provide insights gained from more than a decade of writing about digital coins and talking to coin company CEOs and fraud experts.

我的觀點是提供從十多年的數字硬幣撰寫和與Coin Company Ceos和欺詐專家交談的十多年中獲得的見解。

Rather than taking a deep dive into the process of the bitcoin “mining” hardware that monitors creation of a bitcoin, confirms transactions and helps keep them secure, it makes more sense for this column to just warn folks about scams that use crypto as a lure.

與其深入深入研究比特幣“採礦”硬件的過程，該硬件可以監視創建比特幣，確認交易並有助於確保它們的安全，而是該專欄更有意義地警告人們有關使用Crypto的騙局的騙局。

Overall, the digital coin process has some good security points, but not enough to thwart the most troubling aspects of any cryptocurrency — that its value essentially rises on knee-jerk impulses of buyers with not a whole lot at its foundation to help it bounce back after a deep downturn, and that criminals love digital currency as not only something to steal but also to hide behind to cover up crimes.

總體而言，數字硬幣流程具有一些良好的安全點，但還不足以阻止任何加密貨幣的最令人不安的方面- 其價值本質上是在膝蓋- 喬克（Jer-jerk）的衝動上上升的買家，其基礎並沒有大量的基礎來幫助它反彈。經過深深的衰退，犯罪分子不僅將數字貨幣視為要偷東西，而且還躲在後面以掩蓋犯罪。

It’s not as easy to trace their activities (remember the part about no one is in charge of bitcoin?), and they can dump the value when their deeds are done or, worse, take your money through a fake crypto app.

追踪他們的活動並不容易（還記得沒有人負責比特幣的部分？），當他們的事蹟完成時，他們可以將價值丟棄，或者更糟糕的是，通過假的加密應用程序將您的錢拿走。

I checked in with Julie Conroy, a fraud and security expert whom I leaned on often when writing about these things. In her role as Chief Insights Officer for Boston- and London-based Datos Insights, she has seen it all.

我與朱莉·康羅伊（Julie Conroy）簽到了欺詐和安全專家朱莉·康羅伊（Julie Conroy）。她擔任波士頓和倫敦Datos Insights的首席見解官，她已經看到了一切。

“Scams are on the rise across all payment methods,” Conroy said. “Scammers prefer to receive funds via payment mechanisms that are non-refutable. That’s why gift cards, real-time payment rails, and cryptocurrency are among their preferred ways of receiving funds.”

康羅伊說：“在所有付款方式中，騙局都在增加。” “騙子更喜歡通過不可解釋的付款機制獲得資金。這就是為什麼禮品卡，實時付款導軌和加密貨幣是他們首選獲得資金的方式之一。”

Conroy has always contended a significant danger is that “most people think that scams are somebody else’s problem and it would never happen to them.”

康羅伊（Conroy）始終爭辯說，“大多數人認為騙局是別人的問題，這永遠不會發生在他們身上。”

Her company’s research tells a different story, noting that one in three Americans were victimized by some sort of scam in the past couple of years.

她公司的研究講述了一個不同的故事，並指出過去幾年中，三分之一的美國人被某種騙局受害。

“One of the more prevalent and devastating forms of scams combines a romance scam with cryptocurrency, often resulting in five- or six-figure losses for the victims,” she said.

她說：“騙局的最普遍和毀滅性的形式之一將浪漫史騙局與加密貨幣結合在一起，通常會給受害者帶來五位或六位數的損失。”

A YouTube video from software engineer and “scambaiter” Jim Browning, who is dedicated to bringing down organized crime behind crypto and other scams, explains how a dating app scam essentially uses gorgeous ladies to lure gullible folks into a relationship.

軟件工程師和“ Scambaiter” YouTube視頻致力於將有組織的犯罪在加密貨幣和其他騙局背後降低，他們解釋了約會應用程序騙局如何使用華麗的女士將可笑的人誘使人們陷入戀愛關係。

Part of that relationship includes the lady convincing her new partner that they can make a lot money together through a crypto exchange.

該關係的一部分包括那位女士說服她的新伴侶，他們可以通過加密交易所一起賺很多錢。

The fake site looks legitimate, showing users how to buy and sell digital coins “without risk.”

假網站看起來合法，向用戶展示瞭如何“無風險”買賣數字硬幣。

That’s a red flag, Browning notes, asking the question, “What investment ever made has not carried some risk?”

布朗寧指出，那是一個危險信號，問：“哪些投資沒有帶來一些風險？”

Still, many make the plunge and lose a fortune. They buy coins for their new “love” and that is the last they see of the money or the lady.

儘管如此，許多人還是跌入了一筆財富。他們為新的“愛”購買硬幣，這是他們對錢或女士的最後一次。

There are hundreds of other scams, of course, many that start right in our email inbox or via a text message.

當然，還有數百個騙局在我們的電子郵件收件箱或通過短信中開始。

If we have to be careful about this sort of thing, there are many asking that President Donald Trump and his followers do the same on a larger scale, even as bitcoin value soars and the president has had his own “meme coin” created and placed in the market. It’s a development that has some of his crypto supporters wary of what is next, especially because the Trump coin’s value will rise and fall with this popularity.

如果我們必須謹慎對待這種事情，許多人問唐納德·特朗普總統和他的追隨者在更大範圍內做同樣的事情，即使比特幣的價值飆升和總統擁有自己的“模因硬幣”在市場上。這一發展使他的一些加密支持者對接下來的情況保持警惕，尤其是因為特朗普硬幣的價值將隨著這一普及而上升和下降。

Bitcoin and products like it are essentially an investment, not something many of us would use, nor enough merchants would accept, to buy groceries or gas.

比特幣和類似的產品本質上是一項投資，我們中的許多人都不會使用，也沒有足夠的商人購買雜貨或天然氣。

The value rises and falls on the whims of the crowd and raw human emotion, not on a company’s earnings call, inflation or unemployment stats.

該價值上升並落在人群的異想天開和原始的人類情感上，而不是公司的收入電話，通貨膨脹或失業統計數據。

Sure, the stock markets fluctuate, but safeguards are in place and companies generally have plans to get back on track. Long-term, the stock market does just fine for itself. Digital coins lack that foundation.

當然，股票市場波動，但保障措施已經到位，公司通常有計劃重回正軌。長期，股票市場本身就可以了。數字硬幣缺乏該基礎。

Some in the industry suggest our enemies could be licking their chops at the prospect of buying up a lot of digital coins to drive up their value and thus suck many Americans to follow that trend, then pull out their investment and crash the value. Or simply rob

行業中的一些人表明，我們的敵人可能正在舔碎石，以購買許多數字硬幣以提高其價值，從而吸引許多美國人來遵循這一趨勢，然後撤出投資並崩潰價值。或簡單地搶劫