A Chinese cybersecurity company, SlowMist, has identified a growing trend of scams in the TON and Toncoin environments. As stated by SlowMist’s founder Yu Xian on X, there are numerous phishing attacks in the TON ecosystem today. Many of these phishing links, or bots, are disseminated through groups. The users are normally lured with fake airdrops and other plain looking, but so interesting schemes.
These assailants employ various techniques to compromise assets in holders’ TON wallets. This is often through Anonymous Telegram Numbers or promises of Non-forgivable tokens/Non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The given anonymous Telegram numbers are as close numbers as the mobile phone numbers through which people sign up for Telegram. In case it is stolen, it implies that the linked Telegram account can also be stolen in case there is no separate password.
However, a Two-step verification procedure may protect such accounts and avoid such incidences. Thus, it can be quite confidently stated that the opportunities that Telegram provides to its users are predominantly beneficial to scammers. Some sharp-minded individuals have noted that these fraudsters use these methodologies over and over again. Thus, the users of Telegram Messenger should remain as cautious as possible.
Overall, crypto scams are increasing in the cryptocurrency environment. Recently, blockchain payments firm Ripple Labs Inc. introduced the upcoming stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD), which is pegged at 1:1 with the United States dollar. He noted that some bad actors used the news as an excuse to continue with their negative vices and without any delay, went into action. A clone token appeared on the XRP Ledger and attracted the attention of professionals.
Vet, a validator of the XRP Ledger dUNL, posted a warning of the public announcement stating that the official RLUSD stablecoin is not yet out. People were told not to interact with the fake accounts but instead, they should be wary of any scams.
One more interesting recent campaign involved the spoofing of Trust Wallet – a well-known decentralized wallet service provider. On June 7, Trust Wallet issued an alert stating that scammers had created look-alike apps designed to trick users into installing them for their purchase and storage of cryptocurrencies. It became more interesting when the Binance-owned wallet said that cloned apps are obtainable on both Xiaomi and Amazon stores.
However, some of these hack strategies have been adopted by con artists and several innocent investors have lost their hard-earned money. Approximately two weeks ago, the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) began investigating a fraudulent cryptocurrency exchange known as “Ethfinance.” This followed complaints from an investor who lost $310,000 on the platform.
This appears to be a classic “Advance Fee Fraud” based on the DFI’s description of this type of scam where victims are lured into paying large amounts of money in the expectation of high returns. Investors meanwhile are encouraged to be cautious and vigilant.