Ethereum ‘Giveaway’ Scam Recipe (Shh!)
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Each impudent fraud has a long-standing root. Even the ultra-modern crypto world can’t help but suffer from an invasion of mighty scammers using, however, rather good old techniques. All new things cause trustful people to get into trouble and there is a new scam they need stay away from. Here is the recipe for a piece-of-cake way scammers cheat Twitter users on ether.
Step 1: Starts with an impact
A scammer should be well-informed on the worldwide trends and events. They analyze the masses’ behavior, observe the ideas, personalities. They wait for a chance to exploit. When the bait is chosen, the next stage starts.
Step 2: Pleasing lie
The offer always seems natural enough and conjoining with the current situation or the celebrity’s air. Here are some cases for a proof.
Vitalik Buterin. The founder of Ethereum surprised followers by his tweet where he says he wouldn’t give away any ETH. We believe, he wouldn’t. However, some cons used this announcement to wilder credulous users and catch them out:
Elon Musk. Using the impact made by the Falcon Heavy launch, scammers disguised themselves as the Tesla founder and collected over $5,000 for one night!
Telegram. On March 29 there was a huge power outage at the Telegram servers. Users from Europe, Middle East, and the CIS countries were cut off the service. At the same time, scammers announced an excusable Ethereum giveaway:
Step 3: Profit-making offer
A big gain for a small sacrifice. A scammer creates a fraudulent social media account or website, steals the company’s or celebrity’s digital identity, and posts the message announcing the start of a limited Ethereum giveaway with a link attached.
Come on! This is the stage one should stop by thinking: ‘What am I doing? That’s a trick, sure as hell.’
As soon as a victim lands on the target page, they see a fill-out form. It asks one to send a small amount of ether (usually, 0.2 or 0.1) and get free N (2, for example) ethers back to the same wallet. Surely, there’s no money back, just a sponsorship of light-fingered tricksters.
Historical Note: The scheme is not new at all. The same tricks have been played by spammers since the day emailing was invented. They usually exploit hot news and events to do their fishing.
Why Do People Send Them Money?
An itch for gain obfuscates many. Besides, they send it not to scammers but to a celebrity or a company they trust. The impact and a household name add credibility to the offer.
Is It Possible To Get Coins Back?
The Ethereum wallet is known to be anonymous. So, there’s little chance cyberpolice will be able to track who created it and used the stolen money.
How Can One Fight The Fraud?
Here’s a must-do checklist for everyone who faces suspicious offers:
- Don’t hit the link until you check the info. In addition to the offer, it can contain malware spying on your actions and passwords, or simply a ransom.
- Check out the official webpage or/and social media account of a company/celebrity. There should be a giveaway announcement and not just a message in comments. Make sure the name doesn’t have misprints or spare symbols. Check for the beige witnessing it’s an authorized account. Make a short search for ‘Elon Musk’ accounts to find the real one.
- Make sure if the offer has any sense for a company. Why would Telegram give free ethers (taking that soon they’re going to launch TON, their own cryptocurrency)? What for would Elon Musk share his millions with you? If it’s a part of a promotion, then why is it so quiet, concealed, mysterious and not advertised on each corner? Analyze the facts and don’t let emotions steal your mind.
Keep the head cold and don’t let anyone lure you into a scam like this.
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