Crypto scammers seem to be on an expansion drive now that the digital asset sector is seeing growth in various regions of the world. Yi He, the co-founder of Binance, called on Elon Musk over the weekend to take steps to ensure that the spread of crypto-related fake news on X is proactively dealt with. The Binance executive was recently embroiled in an impersonation scam, where his identity was being used to promote a fake crypto token to X.
In a post published on X, he said that he has not issued any crypto tokens called MemeCoins. He has clearly instructed his followers and Binance crypto circle members not to take the bait and invest in this scam token.
Calling out Musk, the X boss wrote: “Many people were fooled by this hacker link and lost a significant amount of money today. Is there any way to address this problem Elon Musk?” The screenshots shared by He also showed his handling of cryptography, as well as his spoofed name.
Musk, who is otherwise very active on X, has so far not posted a response to He's question.
I have not issued any new MEMEcoins. If you click on the link, they will steal your money. Many people were cheated by this hacker link and today they lost a significant amount of money. Is there a way around this problem?
@elonmusk pic.twitter.com/fCiweFweBa— Yi He (@heyibinance) June 14, 2024
In March this year, Scam Sniffer said in its crypto phishing report that around 57,000 victims lost approximately $47 million (roughly Rs. 392 crore) to crypto phishing scams, with the majority of the of scams facilitated by fraudsters who worked at X.
:rotating_light: [1/6] ScamSniffer's February Phishing Report
In February, some 57,000 victims lost approximately $47 million to crypto phishing scams.
Compared to January, the number of victims who lost more than a million dollars decreased by 75%. pic.twitter.com/UgZk0K91lH— Scam Sniffer | Web3 Anti-Scam (@realScamSniffer) March 10, 2024
In February of this year, MicroStrategy's X account was hacked, through which the launch of a scam MSTR crypto token was promoted. Since MicroStrategy is a pro-Bitcoin business intelligence company, several people believed the token airdrop was legitimate and ended up interacting with malicious links. At the time, market analysts like Scam Sniffer and ZachXBT had estimated that this scam had managed to steal around $440,000 (roughly Rs. 3.6 crore).
Blockchain Capital's X account was also hacked last year to promote another BCAP scam token. In fact, he himself had sounded the alarm about the increasing number of crypto scams that took place at X in January of this year.
When Musk acquired X from its founder Jack Dorsey in April 2022, he said ridding the social media platform of bots and scammers manipulating the crypto-related market was one of his top priorities. Despite the changes he introduced to the platform; Crypto scammers still misuse the platform to connect with potential victims.
