[2018-02-25] Crypto Scammers Hijack Verified Twitter Accounts to Trick Users

[cybersofts]

Cryptocurrency Scammers Hijack Verified Twitter Accounts to Trick Users




Cryptocurrency scammers are currently using Twitter to take advantage of naïve investors looking to make some easy money. Often, the scammers pose as influential community members and promise those that send them a specific cryptocurrency a reward a number of times greater than the initial donation. Now, they even started hijacking verified accounts to look more credible.

To legitimize the move, these scammers then add fake replies to the tweet asking for donations. These replies usually claim they’ve received the funds and thank the person. These scammers are usually easy to spot, as they use recently created accounts, with usernames with extra letters, and without a blue checkmark, only Twitter can give its users.

"The amount of people falling for these scams is insane. The address the scammer is using currently has $20,000 worth of $ETH in it. #Twitter should do something, and please always look for the little blue badge #Ethereum @VitalikButerin"

 - @FranciscoMemor | https://twitter.com/FranciscoMemor/status/964947280951472136


According to Buzzfeed News, scammers recently managed to create a fake, verified Twitter account for Tron Foundation, the organization behind TRON (TRX). To do this, they seemingly hijacked the account of Literacy Bridge, a nonprofit based in Seattle that’s focused on “improving the health, income & quality of life for the world’s most underserved communities.”

After taking over Literacy Bridge’s verified account, the scammers changed its profile picture, pinned a tweet just like the one the real Tron Foundation has pinned, and changed the handle to “tronfoundationl” – notice the extra “l”.

Using the fake account, the scammers then replied to a tweet posted by Justin Sun, Tron’s founder, asking for donations. The tweet, according to Buzzfeed, received over 200 likes and retweets, presumably thanks to the blue checkmark.

Some Twitter users noticed the change and quickly spread the word.

"Apparently somehow this fake acct got verified by @Twitter @TwitterSupport Seems like Twitter doesn’t care except the amount of growing fake users. @justinsuntron @Tronfoundation #trx #tron $trx #scam #fraud #FakeAccount @SupraMan1989 @Dr_strange1 @DigitalLawrence @Brad2pointO"

 -@CrYp7RoN_KnYghT | https://twitter.com/CrYp7RoN_KnYghT/status/967130755737374720


Geoff Goldberg, a Twitter user who frequently calls out spam accounts, spotted the fake Tron Foundation. Speaking to Buzzfeed News, he stated:

    “I saw it was a verified account so immediately was intrigued. To me, it was clear it was a scam, given that I have been encountering these for quite some time. But to others, given the verified account, I could totally see people falling for it.”

After BuzzFeed and the Tron Foundation reported the fake account, it got taken down. This, however, wasn’t an isolated incident. Hackers seemingly managed to hijack another verified Twitter account belonging to a luxury menswear design team in London, going by “adaxnik.” After hijacking his account, the hackers then spoofed Justin Sun’s account.

"Some individuals and groups have counterfeited TRON official account and published untrue information lately. Please identify our official accounts carefully based on the following picture, thank you for your cooperation and strong support. @Tronfoundation @justinsuntron"

 - @Tronfoundation | https://twitter.com/Tronfoundation/status/966597806138957824


At press time, Tron’s founder seemingly has two verified accounts on Twitter. One of them is trying to help users stay safe and expand Tron’s reach. The other one claims there’s a Tron airdrop on the way, and is sending users a link to a fake website I wouldn’t dare click on.

Twitter may have a share of the blame as well, as it’s supposed to remove verified accounts once their username changes. At the end of the day, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who recently got his Twitter account verified, makes things clear:

"DON'T TRUST ANYONE ASKING FOR OR OFFERING MONEY ON TWITTER.
DON'T TRUST ANYONE ASKING FOR OR OFFERING MONEY ON TWITTER.
DON'T TRUST ANYONE ASKING FOR OR OFFERING MONEY ON TWITTER."

 - @CZ_Binance | https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/965188831807913984


Source: https://www.ccn.com/cryptocurrency-scammers-hijack-verified-twitter-accounts-trick-users/

[1Referee]

At the end of the day, if a noob is noob enough, he'll get his ass busted anyway, and that multiple times. If you lack the brains to do the forward thinking, you'll be a prey in this market, it's that simple. Not that long ago the clown John McAfee claimed that his Twitter account got compromised, from where people were adviced to buy rubbish coins, but I don't believe him. He has been involved with Tweeting about shitcoins for quite a while now, and he's only putting up a smoke screen to distract the attention away from him. Be a man and admit your pathetic behavior - being a billionaire and at the same time trying to scoop up a few thousand bucks by having noobs buy a bunch of random shitcoins is pathetic.

[jhenfelipe]

Some twitter users are getting deceived because of that fake user confirmations of getting the free coin with screenshots. If they continue fall for this kind of scams, scammer will continue doing this. Being responsible, doing research and never expect others to give you free coins might help to avoid being a victim.

People shouldn't be too greedy, they need to realize that they will be losing coins instead of having more.

[superjeyy]

At the end of the day, if a noob is noob enough, he'll get his ass busted anyway, and that multiple times. If you lack the brains to do the forward thinking, you'll be a prey in this market, it's that simple.

That's true. I just don't understand how people let other people fool them when scamming has been rampant everywhere. Why can't people be more careful for their own sake? At situations like this, especially when it involves huge amount of profits, people should be more vigilant in where they bring their money. Being smart and doing your own research about a certain person or a company wouldn't hurt to assure your safety. When will people ever learn? Occurrences like these is what gives an ugly image to the reputation of cryptocurrency, but we all have to be aware for our own safety.

[:wq]

There's so much misguided information out there when it comes to protecting yourself and your users. It's too easy to deceive people.

Websites responsible for billions of dollars have warnings on their log in modules informing users to always check that the website they are viewing is protected by an SSL certificate, yet actually obtaining such certificate can not only be done for free, but without any verification. Service providers such as cloudflare host openly host phishing sites until reported and open source projects like letscrypt, lets anyone add a certificate to absolutely any website on their own.

Literally there nothing or next to nothing that can guarantee the legitimacy of a website/online medium. At least to my knowledge, would love to know though. (Sorry if this got off topic)