In the world of crypto coins, there are people trying to fraud users and steal their money. We may think they're going to try sophisticated ways, and, in our collective imagination, we became afraid that a theoretical Quantum computer will allow hackers to reveal our private keys and steal our coins.
However, what we really see are imposters who simply ask you, in a very friendly way, to send them money, and lots of people will gladly fall for that. Exactly! The scammers don’t need to be sophisticated to be effective.
I hope this article helps you and everyone you care about to recognize this trick, be safe and, if you wish, fight it back.
The story repeats and the script are almost the same:
1st act) Someone famous in the crypto world, in this case John McAfee, posts a tweet.
2nd act) In the sequence, a fake profile that uses the same picture and a very similar account name, posts a reply saying something along the lines of
I love my fans so much I am going to give away Ethereum or Bitcoin, the first 100 people that deposit to this address will receive 5 times back, click here.
3rd act) Now the fun begins: when you click the link, it shows a blockchain explorer showing lots of deposits. “It’s amazing!”, you think. Immediately after the deposits, you can see the promised payback transfers to the participants’ addresses. “It must true!”, right?
4th act) As if this wasn’t enough proof, a legion of people starts replying to the tweet saying how they actually got the promised prize and express their wholehearted gratitude to John, or someone else famous, for their generosity. “Oh my, I need to participate before it’s over!”, you decide.
Guess what, if you make the transfer, you will never receive anything back.
So, before you do that, breathe deeply, calm down and follow me in recognizing how the scammers look so authentic. Once you see that, you won’t be fooled, nor anyone else you share this article with.
Scam buster #1: that is a fake profile!
The scammer profile will look like this one:
Notice the scammer’s profile may look exactly like John’s, showing the same picture and the same name, but will certainly be different in 2 important aspects. Let’s take a look at the original one:
If the alleged McAfee does not have that blue tick, which means Twitter didn’t verify his identity and he is an imposter. Besides, the twitter id following the @ misspelled the authentic one.
“Hey, I want to help. What can I do about it?”
Good. The recommended approach, in this case, is to report the fake profile to Twitter, using the “They’re pretending to be me or someone else” option.
After an hour or so, Twitter will confirm they received your report and will keep you informed in case they take additional measures (thank you for making the Internet a safer place).
At this point, you’re already protected and don’t need to continue to the next scam buster. But if you do, you will understand how the imposters try to make their scam credible.
Scam buster #2: that is a fake blockchain!
Yes, when you realize the blockchain technology is THE source of truth, then it gives regular people like you and me the transparency to identify this kind of fraud without resorting to security specialists.
You only need where to look, and search by address.
If the scam artist is demanding Ethereum, use https://etherscan.io/ and search by address.
If Bitcoin, use https://blockchain.info/ and search by address.
If it’s any other coin, search on google for a “block explorer” for the name of the coin.
Using the same Ethereum address we started our article with, this is how the transactions actually looked like in the blockchain.
Let’s check it out: IN, IN, IN, IN, wait, no OUT transactions?
That’s correct!
Everyone is still waiting for their giveaway to return.
Quite different from the picture the scammers showed you, hmm?
This time they received more than 9 ETHs or US$ 5,400 at the moment this article was published.
“Hey, I want to help. What can I do about it?”
So glad you asked. My recommendation is to go back to the tweets and reply the fake witnesses a proof they did not receive anything. This will help other people from being deceived.
As an example:
Now, if you don’t want the hassle of checking the information, just tweet this article and spread the word.
What to expect for the future?
These types of socially engineered attacks will certainly become more frequent and sophisticated. As a rule of thumb, do not expect anyone to send you money for free… not even your favorite celebrity.
Be smart and safe!