Hackers gained control of the official Twitter account of cryptocurrency exchange Gate.io and put over a million users on account of losing funds to a currently functional fraudulent Tether giveaway, as reported by Cointelegraph.
According to Cointelegraph, social media platform Twitter serves as an effective medium to establish connection with the cryptocurrency community. As a result, the trend of hacking into official Twitter handles of verified accounts to ensure scams promotion has been increasing. Hackers of the unknown origin took over Gate.io’s Twitter account and altered the website uniform resource locator (URL) from Gate.io to gate.com (https://xn--gte-ipa.com/) — a fraudulent website mimicking the exchange.
On the basis of information by Cointelegraph, the fake website is conducting the active promotion of a fake giveaway of 500,000 USDT while asking users to ensure their wallets connection (such as MetaMask) for being able to claim rewards. Post a user establishes connection between their wallet and the fake website, the hackers will gain access to their existing funds and end up draining the assets. The ongoing attack has also been confirmed by blockchain investigator Peckshield, as it detected the phishing website and made users aware around the risk associated with loss of private keys.
Moreover, Cointelegraph noted about the period when cryptocurrency scams are expected to reach all-time highs, and that investors have been advised to cross-check the website URLs of the trading platforms in order to assurance around the legitimacy of offerings.
“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,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a statement.
(With insights from Cointelegraph)
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