Despite the recent launch of Meta's fresh microblogging service, Threads, crafty online predators wasted no time exploiting its popularity amongst the thriving crypto community. Famous cryptocurrency influencers were quick to issue warnings about counterfeit accounts running rampant on the new platform.
Threads, which officially went live on July 5, has already attracted more than 98 million eager users. While it doesn't yet rival Twitter's massive user base, estimated at around 450 million, it's certainly gaining momentum.
In recent times, several renowned crypto aficionados have noted a troubling surge in counterfeit accounts on Threads. These cyber tricksters are duplicating the profiles of other users, or even their own, in a deceitful ploy.
Wombex Finance, a decentralized finance platform, rang alarm bells on July 8 by revealing an imposter account under its name on Threads. Since the project has no presence on the platform, Wombex Finance cautioned that this could be a fraudulent move. Similarly, the day before, Leonidas, a respected nonfungible token (NFT) influencer, echoed this concern to his 93,000 followers. Leonidas admitted to creating a Threads account to thwart the impersonators directly.
Jeffrey Huang, better known by his Twitter handle, Machi Big Brother, discovered a counterfeit account on Threads emulating his Twitter presence as early as July 6. So far, these dubious accounts have steered clear of sharing any phishing links or scams, with a major portion of their posts revolving around crypto-specific content.
Twitter, for a long time, has been a fertile ground for crypto phishing predators. They routinely crack into Twitter accounts of prominent individuals and businesses, pushing out malevolent links. These deceptive links trap unsuspecting victims into revealing sensitive information like their crypto exchange login or wallet seed phrase or connecting their wallets to a crypto-siphoning smart contract.
Beosin, a Web3 security company, disclosed that such phishing scams robbed $108 million in crypto assets in the first half of this year alone.
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