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In recent years, cryptocurrencies have become globally popular thanks to their decentralization and innovation. However, in unison, scammers have been developing their narratives to lure as many unsuspecting people as possible into falling for them. An example is a Twitter user who revealed the most popular scams on social media related to digital currencies.
This is an extensive thread by “Serpent,” a cybersecurity specialist who decided to reveal the most fearsome scams currently circulating on social networks.
The user explained that criminals mainly target inexperienced users in the crypto world and get them to take the bait by using hacked verified accounts, fake projects and pitches, malware, and fictitious websites.
1. Phishing
One of the cryptocurrency scams that most concerns the user with 243,000 followers involves “phishing” and those who have recently been duped. “Simply put, they attempt to target people who have already been scammed and claim they can recover the funds,” Serpent noted.
For example, the crooks present themselves to their future victims as blockchain developers and as a solution. They then ask them for a fee to develop a smart contract and “recover” the lost funds.
This case materialized recently after the multi-million dollar exploits that affected Solana wallets in early August.
2. Fake Revoke Cash
The second scam in question was dubbed the “Fake Revoke Cash,” whereby “scammers pretending to be OpenSea attempting to induce a state of urgency and play off of your fears to trick you into visiting a phishing website.”
“This scammer, in particular, botted the likes, retweets & replies to his tweets to make it look legit, then locked the tweet so no one else can reply. They also use bots to mass DM people on Twitter linking them the tweet, or mass mention people on the tweets”, Serpent added.
3. Unicode letters
A third strategy is using Unicode letters to make a phishing URL virtually indistinguishable from a genuine one. Once inside, the victim has no escape. The same goes for hacking verified accounts, as users will have no reason to distrust them.
As for the performance of scams, a Chainalysis report indicated that revenue from crypto-scams declined by 65% so far in 2022 due to the steep drop in digital assets this year.
Joaquín Núñez es licenciado en comunicación periodística por la Universidad Católica Argentina. Se especializa en el escenario internacional y en la política nacional norteamericana. Confeso hincha de Racing Club de Avellaneda. Contacto: [email protected] // Joaquín Núñez has a degree in journalistic communication from the Universidad Católica Argentina. He specializes in the international scene and national American politics. Confessed fan of Racing Club of Avellaneda. Contact: [email protected]