Facebook may have encountered difficulties launching its Libra cryptocurrency, but some scammers are already taking advantage of the hype to defraud unsuspecting investors. In the latest scam, the criminals are falsely claiming to sell Libra tokens for Ether.
The criminals have taken their scheme to Twitter, a platform that has become a favorite for scammers. Under @CoinLibraToken, the scammers have been on the social media platform since March 2018. However, they only started tweeting on January 25.
For just 0.1 ETH, the scammers promise 100 million LIBT tokens, with the offers extending all the way to 15 billion tokens for 2 ETH.
https://twitter.com/CoinLibraToken/status/1221491906242392064
The offer seems to be getting better by the day as just a day later, 2 ETH would get you 100 billion LIBT tokens. Today, January 29, 2 ETH gets you 200 billion tokens. Interestingly, the account’s first tweet claimed that Libra will have a maximum supply of 500 billion tokens. Clearly, the scammers didn’t spend too much time on the calculations. And if the logic of the token distribution isn’t enough to spook you, the tweets are full of spelling mistakes as well.
The scammers claim that they have raised 100 ETH – which amounts to $17,600 at press time – in a private sale which it has since completed. The soft cap for the public sales is 20 ETH, it claims. Those interested in investing have to send ETH to a given address upon which they are to receive their Libra tokens.
As noted by crypto news outlet CryptoSlate, the address has received 3 ETH so far. However, a closer analysis reveals that almost all the 39 transactions conducted so far have been virtually empty. The 3 ETH have been from one address in two transactions – one of 1 ETH and the other 2 ETH. This address hasn’t done much else other than these two transactions, a clear indication that the scammers used it to make it seem like investors were genuinely investing.
The Twitter account has 12,000 followers, but according to analysis by SparkToro, 41% of these are fake accounts and bots. The account is clearly a scam, but judging by its ETH transactions, it hasn’t managed to defraud investors.
CoinLibraToken is not the first scam related to the infamous Facebook digital currency. As CoinGeek reported last year, Facebook has already been working to identify these scams and shut them down. However, its authority only extends to its platform, and those it owns such as Instagram. As Cornell University’s Professor Eswar Prasad noted, it’s ironic that Facebook is facing an uphill battle fighting the scammers after its lackluster response to other scams on its platform.
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