Last year, Twitter was inundated with bots that, for the most part, targeted Ethereum’s cryptocurrency Ether. Research indicated that there were as many as 15,000 crypto scam bots running wild throughout the social media platform and the site promised to do something about it. For a while, things were a lot quieter, but it now appears as though the bots are back and have taken on a whole new look.
The bots now appear to be classy, offering a more alluring appeal to the eye as they try to scam crypto fans out of their assets. They work in the same manner as their predecessors—convince unsuspecting victims into visiting a scam website to give up their assets in exchange for free Ether.
One newer iteration points victims to a domain that is offering “2,000 ETH for free” to users who “verify their Ethereum addresses.” That verification is accomplished by sending crypto to a particular wallet and the offer promises to return the amount, as well as to double it. In an effort to make itself appear more legitimate, the site includes a spreadsheet that is constantly being updated, but all of the transactions are fake.
Fortunately, the crypto community seems to be getting smarter. Looking at the wallet address on a block explorer, there are yet to be any transactions recorded. Given that every transaction is traceable, and wallets are now more easily identified, it most likely wouldn’t be too difficult to ascertain who was running the scams.
Many high-profile individuals were caught up in the scams last year. Elon Musk found out more than once that he was giving away free crypto and Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, became philanthropic with his holdings on several occasions. Of course, in all of the instances, scammers had simply created accounts to masquerade as the individuals in order to steal crypto.
Scammers will always be scammers. They’re too ignorant to know anything else and can’t abide by the laws. Since money was invented, there have been people who thought they could take advantage of others and, unfortunately, this is something the world will always have to deal with. However, the crypto community is now more aware than ever and isn’t as naive as perhaps it once was.
New to blockchain? Check out CoinGeek’s Blockchain for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about blockchain technology.
