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- The Gate.io users suffered from a fake giveaway scam.
- Reportedly, the fake website of Gate.io was actively promoting a fake giveaway of 500,000 USDT.
- Additionally, the website was asking users to connect their wallets like MetaMask to claim the giveaway rewards.
According to the source report of PeckShieldAlert, the blockchain investigator, on October 22, 2022, it seems like Hackers took control of the official Twitter account of crypto exchange, Gate.io. Thi hack put-over its one Million users at risk of losing funds to an on-going fraudulent Tether giveaway.
However, the information about hackers is not identified, which took over the official twitter account of Gate.io’s and then changed the website URL from Gate.io to gąte.com (https://xn--gte-ipa.com/) — which is a fraudulent website impersonating the exchange.
From this hack, it can be seen that the social media platform, Twitter, gives the most effective medium to reach a huge crypto community. Thus, the trend of hacking into the official Twitter handles of verified accounts to promote scams is on the boom.
In another tweet, on the same day PeckShieldAlert shared the post that the fake website is actively promoting a fake giveaway of 500,000 USDT although asking users to connect their wallets (such as MetaMask) to claim the rewards. After which, the user connects their individual wallet to the fake website, the hackers will gain access to their existing funds and end up draining the assets.
After the following news, the officials said that at a time when crypto scams are set to hit all-time highs, investors are advised to re-check the website URLs of the trading platforms to assure the legitimacy of the offerings.
The Recent Warning From The U.S. FBI
On the other hand, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently warned that crypto ATMs are gaining popularity among scammers to receive funds from victims. Over this, the FBI studied that wire transfers, prepaid cards and crypto ATMs are being used by scammers to avoid being tracked by law enforcement.
It added the statement as: “Many victims report being directed to make wire transfers to overseas accounts or purchase large amounts of prepaid cards. The use of cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency ATMs is also an emerging method of payment. Individual losses related to these schemes ranged from tens of thousands to millions of dollars.”
Moreover, when the victims agree to pay up, the scammers ask victims to pay taxes over the original amount, “causing them (investors) to lose additional funds.”
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
