- Crypto Recovery Scams
- Fake Revoke.Cash Scam
- The Use of “Unicode Letters”
- Get Rich Quick Schemes
- The Honey Pot Account
- Commissioning Fake Play To Earn or Fake Work Of NFT
- Hacked Verified Accounts & Fake Mint/Airdrops.
- Fake P2E Game Projects.
- About The Author
In a thread on Twitter respected Cybersecurity analyst and influencer Serpent has revealed his picks for the most horrible crypto and non-fungible token (NFT) scams currently active on Twitter.
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With over 253,400 followers on Twitter, the cyber security analyst is the founder of artificial intelligence and community-powered crypto threat mitigation system, Sentinel.
The 19-part thread posted on Aug. 21, Serpent outlined how scammers target inexperienced crypto users through the use of copycat websites, URLs, accounts, hacked verified accounts, fake projects, fake airdrops, and plenty of malware.
Crypto Recovery Scams
One of the more worrisome strategies comes amid a recent spate of crypto phishing scams and protocol hacks. Serpent explains that the “Crypto Recovery Scam” is used by bad actors to trick those who have recently lost funds to a widespread hack, stating:
“Simply put, they attempt to target people who have already been scammed, and claim they can recover the funds.”
According to Serpent, these scammers claim to be blockchain developers and seek out users that have fallen victim to a recent large-scale hack or exploit, asking them for a fee to deploy a smart contract that can recover their stolen funds. Instead they “take the fee and run.”
This was seen in action after the multimillion-dollar exploit affecting Solana wallets earlier this month, with Heidi Chakos, the host of the YouTube channel Crypto Tips, warning the community to watch out for scammers offering a solution to the hack.
Fake Revoke.Cash Scam
Another strategy also leverages recent exploits. According to the analyst, the “Fake Revoke.Cash Scam,” tricks users into visiting a phishing website by warning them that their crypto assets may be at risk, using a “state of urgency” to get users to click the malicious link.
The Use of “Unicode Letters”
Another strategy uses “Unicode Letters” to make a phishing URL look almost exactly like a genuine one, but replacing one of the letters with a Unicode lookalike, while another strategy sees scammers hack a verified Twitter account, which is then renamed and used to impersonate someone of influence to shill fake mints or airdrops.
Get Rich Quick Schemes
The remaining scams target users wanting to get in on a “get rich quick” scheme. This includes the “Uniswap Front Running Scam”, often seen as spam bot messages telling users to watch a video on how to “make $1400/DAY front-running Uniswap” which instead tricks them into sending their funds to a scammer’s wallet.
The Honey Pot Account
Another strategy is known as a “Honeypot Account” — where users are supposedly leaked a “private key” to gain access to a loaded wallet, but when they attempt to send crypto in order to fund the transfer of coins, they are immediately sent away to the scammers’ wallet via a bot.
Commissioning Fake Play To Earn or Fake Work Of NFT
Other tactics involve asking high-value NFT collectors to “beta test” a new Play-to-earn (P2E) game or project, or commissioning fake work to NFT artists — but in both cases, the ruse is merely an excuse to send them malicious files that can scrape browser cookies, passwords, and extension data.
Also Read: Crypto Scams Drop Following the Exit of Gullible Newbies in 2022: Chainalysis Report
Hacked Verified Accounts & Fake Mint/Airdrops.
Commonly using hacked verified accounts, scammers will usually launch fake airdrops/mints, however they can get pretty creative. There is a fake hacked verified account impersonating the CEO of OpenSea. a fake “BAYC animator” targeted at BAYC holders. They will just drain your wallet. Don’t blindly trust the verification symbol, it means nothing. Always double check usernames.
Fake P2E Game Projects.
Either by individually targeting high-value NFT collectors, or making it widespread, scammers are impersonating/creating Play-To-Earn projects and releasing a “beta version” which is filled with malware They are also offering payment for reviews.
The RAR file contains real game libraries to make it look legit. The launcher, however, is infected and will steal your browser cookies and browser data (including extension data).
About The Author
Tony Chimdiuto 
Tony Chimdiuto