How Imposters Scam Entrepreneurs Out of Their Crypto

“On Jan. 31, a Telegram user calling himself “Danny Nelson” contacted Karla Vilhelem, a public relations professional, with an unseemly proposal.

Pretending to be the CoinDesk reporter of the same name, he said he would publish a post about her client but wanted $600 for his trouble, a small sum for exposure on the crypto site of record.

Vilhelem was wary. After three years in the industry, she was used to scammers impersonating major players in the crypto ecosystem and, more frustratingly, so-called journalists asking for cash. She advised clients never to pay for coverage, and the proposition made her suspicious of this so-called Danny Nelson.

‘I knew CoinDesk doesn’t take money,’ she said.

Another tell-tale sign was her interlocutor’s atrocious grammar, and mispunctuation of the brand name, which is spelled with a capital D.”