Bitcoin Forum

I just want to share a post from reddit regarding this phishing attempt using the name of Gemini and trying to trap and victimized crypto users.

It will give you a supposedly seed phrase where you going to transfer your assets, but that is under the control of criminals.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1fcw50v/psa_do_not_fall_for_this/

This is just really crazy you know,  and the funniest and craziest aspect of this whole thing is that there'll always be people who'll ignorantly fall victim to these cheap phishing scams and end up losing their assets to these hungry scammers. Every single day, they're coming up with new techniques to defraud crypto users.

I think I've come across something similar to this kind of phishing scam but the scammer used  a different  company,  not Gemini, and just like you, I was able to tell immediately that it was nothing more but a cheap scam attempt. Crypto users should try as much as possible to equip themselves with the necessary knowledge so as to prevent themselves from falling into cheap scams like this.

Scammers try to invoke 2 major emotions in their potential victims, greed or panic and sometimes both. This looks like an obvious scam to us and most others but in a state of panic there are a few that will not think the situation through and feel their first priority is to secure their funds that are at risk.

For this reason I advise that people do not take decisions without first thinking it through, doesn't matter if you just got notice of a serious security breach requiring an update or a hack requiring you to move your funds, always take out your time to think it all through. Also treat every contact as a scam until proven otherwise.

Do not get greedy either, if it's too good to be true, it isn't.

That's usually done through email so, check out the source and the email domain if it's from the actual service that has sent you that.

And one thing, if you're not using the exchange and you received emails or messages like that randomly, don't bother in opening them. They always put a link at the bottom of those emails for the curious ones to click and check it.

So, don't click the link as well and if you don't think that you've done something wrong, delete and ignore the email/message.

In this case the content of the message overrides the source. If it's the actual service sending a message with an already generated seedphrase and asking you move your funds there for "self custody" it's still a scam.

The original email address can also be hacked

if there's a threat to your fund that's in an exchange iether through suspected SEC policy that might have effect on it or through any form of suspension that your funds isn't safe, would you receive the prompt through your mail or the flash news will be displayed on the exchange app through which you can effect the prompt? I believe that if such thing happens to an exchange, they wouldn't suggest a particular wallet you're to transfer your funds to buy rather give you a deadline you're to move your funds out of the exchange so the SEC policy doesn't affect you.

We experienced similar issue with Binance at the time the SEC in my country were implementing certain policies that wasn't favourable for most of the exchange. Prio to the delisting of Naira from the exchange, if I'm not wrong a circular was sent internally through the exchange that notified user of what's going on, it's left for the person to take necessary steps that's good enough for his case to help secure his funds. At least, if the update his coming from an internal source, through the exchange directly you're more confident it's not an attack. When you know that even the official email address of the exchange you're using could be compromised and used to carry out phishing attack or alternatively, they can create another email address that's almost like that of the exchange and use it for such kind of act, it becomes too deficult to believe whatever update message you're receiving through your mail most expecially as it relates to your crypto.

 My question is why would I use a seed phrase that just popped up on a suspicious looking site and the aim is to transfer all my funds? I mean what do I stand to gain if I transfer all my funds there? Do I get to become an asset holder with Gemini or what? Just hearing that I get to transtmy funds alone will send alarm bells ringing in my head .
 Despite the fact that scammers are getting better, some are getting so desperate that you can see through their cheap scamming and what happened to me doing my research before going ahead if ever it looks genuine?!

They can also use the same email to send such messages to people. The truth is that any thing you might think is impossible, as long as it involves the internet, it going to be possible one way of the other. Most times newbies get scared when they get in contact with such information and out of fear, they hurriedly make decisions that will cost them a lot. Unfortunately with the way this email was composed, aside someone with good knowledge of wallet and experience, they might fall for it and immediately move their funds to the seed. The first red flag is, why would they send you a seedphrase through you Gmail and ask you not to share with anyone? Iso something like that we just have to be watch full to avoid fallen for shit low quality scams.

This is just crazy, man! Do people actually fall for that?! To be honest, that email looks very well organized. I have seen this kind of mail many times, I mean, it happened with me actually. And they always use scary term likes SEC, KYC, HACKED in order to scare people and wait for them to make the wrong move.

There was this one time, I got an email from Coinbase, duh :P (not real one), asking me to verify my identity or something like that (I don't remember it all), and the most funny thing was that they asked me for my email address that is associated with the Coinbase account and the seed phrase. I was literally so confused, since when did Coinbase require an email address? Never. Checked the content of the mail a little, went here and there, and realized it was a scam attempt.

So, people should always remember this: "Not your keys, not your coins.". If any strangers try to give you anything for free, always be careful!

Fear will undoubtedly make people to fall victims of this especially the newbies. If you’re knowledgeable enough and understands what privacy and security in cryptocurrency is all about, you’ll clearly know that this is a scam. A reputable exchange will not release such information to its people because this is clearly unprofessional and already portraying the signs of legitimate fraud attempt. I hope people don’t fall for this because it’s going to be a disaster and disappointment to anyone that fall for this.

That's true that the email address can also be hacked. It also starts with verification if it's a real one or not and thus, these exchanges or any wallet providers don't give us the recovery phrases through email. We should be the ones to generate it.

Still, don't click on any links that they're giving and always verify the source just to be sure and it won't take that much time for the safety of someone who's really concerned about the message that they receive like this if they really are using these exchanges.

Giving this kind of instructions are already red flag but sadly, many newbies will really panic on this one.

People will always perish for ignorance and lack of knowledge,  because while it's true that fear remains the major factor to why someone would fall fiction to such a scam, we also need to understand that someone who isn't ignorant of such scheme or equipped with the adequate amount of knowledge about crypto and its vices wouldn't give any room for fear because it'll be clear to him that an exchange creating a wallet for their customer and asking them to move their funds into that wallet is nothing but a cheap scam.

The best way to protect oneself from such scam, since it's mostly caused by ignorance,  would be to try as much as possible to equip yourself with good amount of knowledge, because it's quite unfortunate that a lot of people I'm the crypto space are so filled with ignorance,  some don't even understand the dynamics of the investment or asset they're investing in, thereby making them very vulnerable and prone to scam, these are the kind of people that are mostly targeted by scammers, so the best way to avoid being scammed is by having enough knowledge to protect you in the space.

Cheap scam trick, no platform would ever create a seed phrase for you, how can one even think of sending their money into a non-custodial wallet that was created by a third party.

Is it possible to know if people actually fell for this, or not? Because i am curious to know, if a crypto user falls for this scam, then TBH, they really have no business using crypto, because they do not even understand the basics, hell their funds shouldn't even be stored in Gemini's platform in the first place.

I do agree that this is a cheap trick, but who knows, we really don't know what is the emotions of people receiving such emails. Maybe they will panic and get nervous. But it's good that according to the discussions, so far no victims.

Yes, the best to do is not to trust anyone, and then verify before falling for it. And we have been given warnings already for this kind of attacks and so if someone became a victim, no offense to them but it's their fault and it's going to be a very expensive lessons to learn.

The major target in the scam is Gemini account holders and those who have crypto assets left in their account. The scammer tries to convince them through that email that due to the current law suit, the account holders funds are no longer safe in their Gemini account, which is why they have taken the step to help them move out of their holdings to their self-custodial wallet (which the scammer created for them). 
 
Those who don't know how foolish it is to take wallet phrases from someone online are definitely going to fall for the scam, and those who always, out of fear, rush to do things will also fall victim to the scam. There is always someone who falls victim to such scams due to their low level of security knowledge, or will I just say it's caused by their ignorance?

Hopefully there are no casualties, because I have not received news about this problem. Scammers use various ways to profit from their victims. One key for us and all of us is to carefully understand the words and seek out as much information as possible. Another thing is not to panic about receiving a letter like this. They always try to match sources that look valid so that they look official. I think those who are able to act like that will not be victims. So the best filter is our ability to identify all the news we receive to stay safe.

Sad part is not everyone know this schemes since maybe they are new in the scene and this is common reason why they fall on such schemes. What more disturbing part there is usually newbies usually do their research after they got compromised.

If they just normalized to do research first or verify to site support regarding on the email they receive for sure they will not get bothered towards such crazy information they receive. For sure lots of the same attack will encounter by people so its really better to have knowledge and always stick on a belief that if everything is to good to be true for them provably its not true or shall we say it obviously a scam.

They advice people to download and use Trust wallet while that wallet is not good to use because it is a closed source wallet.

https://walletscrutiny.com/?platform=allPlatforms&page=0&query-string=trust

Second like other warnings here and at other places, if you share your private keys, mnemonic seeds, you will lose your bitcoin. "It's your keys, it's your bitcoins" and people have to read and remember very security basics.

Security checklist (https://chainsec.io/checklist/)
Explain why "Not your keys, not your bitcoins" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcrEEnDLm58)

That's because you are familiar with the scam, it is not new to you.

On the other side this looks genuine for people who believe in the company but lack an understanding of what self custody means in crypto space.

Some people are even better off giving up their crypto assets to the exchanges, thinking that centralized platforms know how to do the job better than them doing the keeping themselves, the sense of responsibility is better in the hands of others than them.

Sounds weird but many people are built like this, not from childbirth but as they grow up, they turn themselves into such useless beings, there is a different between been stupid and been lazy, having this two in one body will lead to disaster.

Before God can give you need to ask, that's why the bible said ask and you shall be given, seek and you shall find, if you don't ask nor seek you will be the world's biggest fool, idiot and more.

Tbh, this is very cheap format that only supposed newbies should fall victim to. Too many foul play that even a newbie is not supposed to fall into their trap. Non custodial wallet but the seed phrases were sent through email making it vulnerable. Secondly, suppose there is such lawsuit and Gemini wants their users to withdraw their funds, does it make any sense to tell them where to withdraw their funds to? I don't think so.

I won't be surprised seeing people falling for this trick because some people are into this technology without a single knowledge of security checks or measures and would be desperate to do whatever they're being told to do. Moreover, in cases like this Gemini will definitely have to publish a notice on their media platforms to notify their users.

This is a well organised scam that many people will not suspect to be scam as they perpetrators are using the latest development in the crypto space to push their scheme. But they actually left a clue that people can use to know that they are scammers which is asking people to transfer their asset to another wallet. Trustwallet on its own have been shown to be unreliable, so those who are aware that through being active on this forum will easy escape this scheme that involves downloading Trustwallet from.where one will import their seed phrase before sending their crypto to the scammers.

You are right but I think that we could add the feeling of urgency in the explosive mix of emotions they try to invoke from potential victims. Different from greed and linked to panic, but not just the same.

It often happens in scams, and it is an easily identifiable big red flag: you have limited time, it is a once-in-a-lifetime deal, or whatever, and they urge you not to miss the train.

You are correct, Trust Wallet is a closed source wallet, so it is not a good wallet to keep your coins, but even if the scammers had used Electrum or Sparrow wallet, i don't think anyone should still fall for this. What i am saying is that the wallet the scammers used for this should not be what gives them away, it should be everything, from the email itself, it is so obvious. If it is only the wallet that saved some of the recipients, then they will likely be scammed in the future.

I just looked at the phrase "give you a supposedly seed phrase where you going to transfer your assets", and looked at the supposed email which is from Gemini, an exchange where I'm not using at all and I said to myself "These scammers need to do better if they want to scam me." because that trick will not get me. Seed phrase that I myself didn't even generated at first place? Try harder scammer. :D

On the flip side, there are some investors out there especially newbies that might fall to this way. I've been in crypto for quite some time and I already look at these scamming attempts as like I'm normalizing them already because it happens all the time. Like we are seeing scamming reports from different users on a daily basis. This is the reason why the number of money that these scammers are getting is increasing yearly. This is why as investors, we need to be updated and we must know how these scammers are scamming us so that we know how to prevent them.

These tricks that scammers are doing is what I consider as "cheap", but it works unfortunately. :D

You have no idea how naive some people can be. This is nothing, I was reading through the forum yesterday and I read a thread where a guy was attacked by a group of strangers in a parking lot because he went there to sell his USDT to a buyer he met online in Telegram which is the primary platform for scammers for privacy and security it provides.

Now, can you imagine how naive a person needs to be to trust someone they meet online and literally go to meet them in person to sell their cryptocurrencies?

The world is full of such people, sometimes you will find scams and scammers that are completely dumb and idiots, but guess what? They still find people they can scam because there is always someone more stupid than them. We live in a crazy world.

That's the reality.
Some people will believe and fall for that trick even if we're so aware of how the scam goes. It's the sad truth that despite a lot of awareness and reminders given to many communities, there are people who will fall for it because they think that it's a real thing. They won't ask someone for it as if the money that they have in there will be taken from those concerned people that they'll ask for it. But the thing is, the scammer will have no other intention on them but to really take and suck everything from them. It's not surprising that there will be people that are going to fall for it.

Still doesn't look new to me but the steps this scammer has taken is brilliant. Many would believe their fully well-constructed guides and docs and transfer their assets. On the brighter side, one should be smart enough to note that as long as you share your private key with someone it is all over. Any site that requests your private key apart from the main wallet app is a scam site. These are the first steps to secure an investment.

For those who are not familiar with the Gemini logo will be the first to fall for it and the domain still looks fishy as well.

The message that Upgrade00 was actually passing is that the source of message been it from the official website, the official social media handles and also official email address doesn’t mean anything in relation to what was written in that message, the content stating that the funds be move to a different seed phrase not entirely known to you is already the giveaway spot that it is scam already. if an exchange is trying to  delist a pair like the naira which binance Delisted they simply assure you that nothing will happen to your funds and it won’t happen ( this is not an advice to use centralized exchange or store coins on them though) or even if they are leaving that region they simply tell you to move the funds to your other exchanges or wallets without stating where, an original source of the exchange can still be use to pass this kind of phishing information not it doesn’t change anything.

Please don't call this trick Cheap someone out there who is a novice in crypto related stuff is somehow going through a lot in the hands of criminals like this through this simple looking trick. Although it's their fault that they don't make good enquiries before taking the actions but I don't blame people who fall for this trick because they aren't as knowledgeable as we that have being on cryptocurrency platforms for months and/or years, a good example of people who are easily trapped on this are those who are just being introduced to crypto through this new telegram mini app, tap to earn schemes that has been trending hence victims are just very new to this cryptocurrencies.