How do I avoid scams and "high-risk" addresses?

Quick scam test

• Someone contacted me on social media and is offering me big returns in a short time frame by trading forex, binary options or currencies

• My trader/broker is asking me to pay for a “cost of transfer”, taxes or any other fee in order to access my “profits”

• I’m encouraged to recruit more people into an investment programme, as I’ll earn an income from their investment. This is a pyramid scheme, which requires you to find new participants in order to generate investment returns

• I met the love of my life online, and they’ve asked me to send them money or cryptocurrency

• A famous person is giving away cryptocurrencies if I send them a small amount first

If any of this sounds familiar, you are possibly being scammed. Your money is at risk and we recommend you do not continue sending money.

What we don’t do

• We do not give financial or trading advice and we will not manage your account for you. Anyone doing this and claiming to be from Luno (or partnering with Luno) is trying to scam you

• We will never (seriously, never ever) ask for your password, 2FA codes or One-Time-PIN. Please don’t share these with anyone – even if they say they work at Luno

• We do not ask customers to share their screen in order for us to assist

• Never give anyone else access to your Luno account - not only is this against our Terms of Use, but they are most likely trying to scam you or use your account to commit future fraud in your name

• We currently do not have a phone number you can call us on (beware of fake technical or customer support calls)

• We cannot reverse cryptocurrency transactions as they are “irreversible” by design, unlike credit card transactions. In other words, you won’t get your money back

• There are no costs associated with withdrawing your money from Luno or managing your account except for low processing fees that are automatically applied

What you can do to stay safe

• Be extra careful (even paranoid) and verify the person or organisation you are dealing with by doing extensive online research and asking them specific questions about their business

• Scammers are very persuasive and take advantage of people who are still learning about cryptocurrencies. Don’t be afraid to terminate a conversation and walk away

• Do not take loans and borrow money to buy and send cryptocurrency to someone

• Avoid brokers, account managers, traders, sponsors, agents, and other people that offer to trade cryptocurrency on your behalf

• Luno is open to everyone and easy to use, so invest directly using your own account and do not share your details with anyone

What is a high-risk address?

While Luno makes it easy to buy, store and send cryptocurrencies, it also makes it safe. This is why we use software from an industry-leading blockchain monitoring service provider to detect crypto wallet addresses that are or have been associated with illicit activity. These addresses are classified as “high risk."

Here are some examples of risky categories:

• Terrorist financing

• Sanctions

• Child abuse material

• Ransomware, etc.

The list above isn't a comprehensive one. There may be other reasons Luno might flag an address as “high-risk.”

In line with our commitment to making our platform as safe as possible for our customers, we don’t process transactions from a Luno wallet to a wallet address classified as “high-risk.”

If you receive a notification that the address you are trying to send cryptocurrency to is a “high-risk” address, it will not be possible to send funds from Luno to this address.