Crypto scammers impersonate Binance exec for $210k haul

Binance co-founder Yi He warned the crypto community of scammers impersonating her account and launching phishing campaigns. 

According to He’s notice on Friday, crypto scammers successfully siphoned 60 Ether (ETH). The victim apparently clicked a malicious link, likely believing the Binance executive was promoting a digital asset giveaway.

“Please stay alert to such fake accounts”, He advised blockchain participants and community members. Scammers are fond of leveraging famous personalities, companies, and other well-known figures for nefarious purposes. 

On previous occasions, bad actors have hacked social media pages operated by CoinGecko, Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin, and MicroStrategy, among others. Scammers also reportedly used deep fakes generated by artificial intelligence to host a widely watched phishing trap on YouTube earlier this month.

Crypto airdrops under siege

The issue is particularly rampant on social network X. Scammers often mimic the pages of web3 protocols during airdrops to lure users into unknowingly stealing funds. 

According to Blockaid, the number of malicious platforms spoofing Ethereum scaling solution zkSync has increased fivefold since the project announced its token distribution plan. Blockaid CEO and co-founder Ido Ben-Natan also told crypto.news that scammers likely deploy X ads to target all zero-knowledge (ZK) accounts during this period.

The pattern is a growing trend in nascent blockchain industry as bad actors seek to ride the hype around these airdrops to steal digital assets. Similar incidents were spotted when Starknet and EigenLayer announced respective airdrops.