Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum
If you haven’t invested in them, you must have heard of them! All of it (and more) have become the favorite of many. These currencies are heavily invested in, and cryptocurrency exchanges are helping the mass by facilitating the transaction.
Cryptocurrency has attracted more eyeballs than the much-awaited Spanish show ‘Money Heist’ in today’s shared virtual world. A term once the prerogative of the ‘elite’ has now cascaded to the masses. Today, the ecosystem, which once had very thin liquidity, is rife with fraudsters and criminals.
The advent of legitimate crypto businesses has enabled get-quick-rich schemes. With more and more people becoming involved in the roaring digital monetary mechanism, the cryptocurrency ecosystem has given birth to a new breed of scammers- the crypto ad fraudsters.
Are you of the investors interested in buying a Bitcoin or an altcoin? Have you signed up on an exchange? If yes, you’re doing right. But did you happen to check if the exchange is a legitimate one?
Fake Exchanges
In one such instance, a cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, BitKRX, was named to establish itself as the legitimate cryptocurrency arm of the trading platform in Korea-Korea Exchange (KRX). Given KRXs legitimacy and goodwill, BitKRX attracted a large pool of investors. People who (thought they) had invested their hard-earned funds via the platform (whoop!!) the money had vanished.
“According to a report, 54% of attacks came from threat actors impersonating brands, employees, and executives on social media.
Social media became a favorite attack vector, accounting for 47% of all attacks.”
Word of Caution for investors: Always sign up on regulated exchanges. These exchanges have a legitimate online presence: social media, website, customer support.
But, what if a fake website, fake social media, and fake customer support are all a set-up?
Fake/Lookalike Website
A well-known exchange runs an online ad to attract more people to its platform. (*Google has recently allowed crypto ads from exchanges based out of the US to advertise on their platform). Fraudsters also run the same campaign only with a minor difference with their landing page, taking advantage of this opportunity.
Upon clicking the ad (which you assumed belongs to the fair exchange), it takes you to a similar looking, professionally designed website with matching details, customer support, and even (fake) social media pages. And once you sign up with all your personal information, including your private key, you may wake up to an empty bank account and zero digital assets. The legit crypto exchange will lose its brand equity where it had no role. The fraudsters duped the customers on the pretext of a legit platform!
“Congratulations! You’ve won 6.999 BTC in a lucky draw. Access it now.”
Read your mail. You check the sender; it says ‘(take any reputable) xchange.com. Excitedly, you click the link, and you’re redirected to a website that asks you to fill out all the personal details so that the currency adds the currency to your account. But, to facilitate the transaction, a certain amount has to be paid as the transfer fee. Fine! You’d do that, 6.999 BTC after all!
And you’re done for good, literally! Did you happen to check the domain name? (We mean the spelling!)
Phishing, Typosquatting
In one such email scam, a specific crypto exchange targeted millions of mail ids with a similar monetary incentive. The mail read that they had won x amount of Bitcoin in a lottery, and the users can access it via a link. For the victim to withdraw the free Bitcoin, they had to add funds to meet the minimum withdrawal criteria!
In June 2020, a notable France-based crypto wallet company’s database was hacked. Over 2 lakh mail addresses were put on websites under hacked databases.
Fraud capabilities are endless! As an organization, you must constantly look for such scams and fraud, which may harm your reputation and compromise user safety. Fraud can hurt you at all the places you’re presently online and spoil your reputation, irrespective of your industry.
What tools are you using to prevent your reputation and ensure Brand Safety while ensuring your user’s trust?
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