Bitcoin scams have surged as the cryptocurrency has hit record highs, according to research published Thursday by the security firm ZeroFOX Inc.

The research found that along with traditional scams such as phishing attempts and pyramid schemes, new types of financial scams involving bitcoin are actively spreading across social networks.

There is a wide array of scams:

• Malicious URLs offering fake bitcoin wallets hiding malware downloads that then hijack a victim’s bitcoin funds.
• Fake bitcoin surveys that offer similar nefarious hijacking scripts.
• Bitcoin-flipping scams by which bitcoin users are offered instant money for bitcoin after paying an initial startup fee.
• A scheme that targets private bitcoin keys through phishing attacks pretending to be from legitimate bitcoin exchanges.
• Bitcoin flipping schemes that promise investors irregularly high returns on their bitcoin after they paid an initial upfront fee.
• Cloud mining scams where bitcoin holders join forces to rent computers to mine bitcoin but rarely deliver on their promises.

The numbers are not small. The company identified 3,618 bitcoin scam URLs in March alone, with posts containing these URLs shared a total of 516 times averaging 24.53 shares per day.

Not all bitcoin scam posts contained URLs to known scam sites. Some scammers asked for direct contact via direct message or phone, posted URLs not yet discovered or directed viewers to URLs within the scammer’s bios or imposed over an image. In that case, ZeroFOX discovered 8,742 posts for an average of about 416 posts per day over the same period of time.

The numbers get larger, though, when taking into account historical data. Research found that bitcoin scam URLs have been shared more than 126 million times in social media posts.

ZeroFOX recommends that bitcoin users don’t trust anyone claiming to provide bitcoin mining services. They also recommend avoiding URLs in social media profiles advertising too-good-to-be-true bitcoin offers. Finally, they should be vigilant when engaging with social media accounts representing legitimate bitcoin brokers, including never engaging in any financial transaction via direct message or social networks.

Image: Davidstankiewicz/ Wikimedia Commons