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Cryptocurrency scammer to lose a decade in jail

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Matthew Ho, the famous cryptocurrency scammer has been jailed for 10 years after stealing identities for his theft.

According to The Straits Times, Singaporean citizen, Ho, aged about 32 years, was sentenced to ten years in prison for using stolen identities to buy cloud computing services and mine Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency. His father has posted a $180,000 bail.

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One of the victims of the fraud was Marc Merrill, a co-founder of Riot Games and the man behind the well-known multiplayer computer game League of Legends.

On a dark web forum, Ho discovered Merrill’s American Express credit card information. In November 2017, he was able to take over the game developer’s Amex account and use it to sign up for the Amazon Web Service (AWS). Merrill got access to “elevated levels” of AWS’s cloud computing capabilities because he was a renowned game creator.

Cryptocurrency stolen using Amazon and Google servers

Ho was able to deceive Amazon by using a forged copy of Merrill’s driver’s license thanks to his expertise in document forgery. However, over the aforementioned period, the South Korean impostor was able to mine $350,000 worth of ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world.

Within a few months, Merrill accrued debts totaling more than $5 million. Only in January 2018 was the fraud exposed. Additionally, he paid a quarter-million dollars for Google’s computing services using Merrill’s identity.

The victim (Merrill) was not previously identified, even though the Department of Justice made public the accusations against Ho in October. Due to the ongoing investigation, Riot Games declined to comment. It’s unknown how his credit card details and private information were taken.

According to a search warrant for the accused’s Facebook account, Ho employed many strategies to deceive Amazon into thinking he was Merrill, the co-creator of the hugely successful, $20 billion-generating League of Legends game. According to the court document, he utilized an email address that seemed to be a real Gmail for the Riot Games co-chairman and made a phony California driver’s license with Merrill’s name on it. According to the feds, he provided Amazon with one of Merrill’s actual home addresses as additional “evidence” of identification.

OpenSea to address scams and IP violation

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Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of OpenSea, said the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace would step up its efforts to combat fraud and plagiarism.

Although fraud, intellectual property (IP) theft, and plagiarism are prohibited under OpenSea’s conditions, “at our scale, thorough policies aren’t enough,” Finzer wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

To date, the platform has developed systems to counteract the majority of prohibited actions, including a new authentication system, an image scanning “copy mint prevention system,” and improved search capability to assist users in finding genuine information.

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OpenSea went on to state that the firm’s primary focus areas are trust, safety, and customer experience, beginning with transparent user guidelines and standards spelled out in its Terms of Service. Because not all NFT marketplaces follow and enforce the same standards, the company’s Terms provide the ground rules for what is and isn’t allowed on OpenSea. They also serve as a vital guide for the community and wider ecosystem.

OpenSea an open sea of lawsuits

Despite this, the ecosystem is replete with fraud and hacking, and OpenSea – the largest platform by market volume – has been chastised in the past for being slow to respond to events where stolen NFTs were sold on.

OpenSea, one of the most well-known crypto startups, is facing backlash over nonfungible coins that have been stolen and plagiarised.

Plagiarism has also increased on OpenSea, with vendors converting traditional artwork into NFTs and then selling the pieces without paying the original creator.

Mr. Chapman is one of many crypto aficionados who have expressed concerns about OpenSea, an eBay-style website where users may explore millions of NFTs, buy them, and sell their own. OpenSea has grown to be the leading NFT marketplace and one of the most well-known crypto start-ups in the previous 18 months. The business has raised more than $400 million in funding from investors, valuing it at a whopping $13.3 billion, and has hired executives from internet behemoths such as Meta and Lyft.

Mr. Chapman missed out on his projected ApeCoin windfall because he had lost his ape, which he had planned to spend to buy a property near his wife’s family outside of Houston.

OpenSea, on the other hand, stated in May that it was deploying image-recognition technology to combat plagiarism. However, because the scanning program only compares newly uploaded images to other NFTs on OpenSea, it is unlikely to find artwork copied from other websites.

Over $1 Billion in Crypto Scams in 2021 Points to Social Media as the Root Cause

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According to the US Federal Trade Commission, social media and cryptocurrency are a “combustible combination for scams,” with social media platforms accounting for over half of all crypto-related scams in 2021.

The research, which was released on Friday, indicated that scammers stole up to $1 billion in cryptocurrency this year, a more than five-fold increase from 2020 and over sixty-fold increase from 2018.

The amount of cryptocurrency lost as of March 31 was already reaching half of the projection for 2021, indicating that progress isn’t slowing.

Crypto scams are more than ever

The top platforms utilized for crypto frauds, according to the FTC, were Instagram (32%), Facebook (26%), WhatsApp (9%), and Telegram (7%). Interestingly, despite being clogged with spam and scam bots pushing fraudulent coin giveaways, Twitter, the social media medium commonly used by the crypto-community, was not listed.

Investment Related Fraud was the most common type of crypto scam, accounting for $575 million of the total $1 billion in fraud reports to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network.

According to the FTC, frequent investment scams involve a so-called “investment manager” contacting a client and promising to grow their money if the consumer purchases cryptocurrencies and deposits it into an online account.

Impersonating a celebrity who can multiply any cryptocurrency sent to them or promising free cash or cryptocurrency are two other tactics. Scams involving investment in false art, gems, and rare coins, phony investment seminars and advice, and other miscellaneous financial scams are also included in this category, according to the FTC.

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Cryptocurrency scammer to lose a decade in jail 4

Romance Scams, with $185 million in losses, were the next highest crypto-fraud-related losses, in which a love interest tries to persuade someone into investing in a crypto scam.

People in their 20s–49s were the most likely to lose crypto to a fraudster, with those in their 30s being the heaviest hit, accounting for 35% of total reported fraud losses.

The amount of cryptocurrency lost increases with age, with the median individual recorded cryptocurrency losses for those in their 70s reaching $11,708, compared to just $1,000 for those in their 18s and 19s.

Scammers Take Control of Beeple’s Twitter Account to Sent Out a Phishing Scam

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Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, a digital artist and popular nonfungible token (NFT) developer, had his Twitter account stolen on Sunday as part of a phishing attempt.

Users were warned by MetaMask security analyst Harry Denley that Beeple’s tweets at the time, which contained a link to a raffle of a Louis Vuitton NFT collaboration, were a phishing scheme that would drain crypto from users’ wallets if clicked.

The fraud artists were most likely hoping to profit from a legitimate recent Beeple-Louis Vuitton partnership. Beeple created 30 NFTs for the premium fashion brand’s Louis The Game smartphone game, which was used as player incentives earlier this month.

Beeple’s phishing scam cost users over $438k

The fraudster proceeded to tweet phishing links from his Twitter account, directing readers to fake Beeple collections with the promise of a free mint for unique NFTs.

The phishing links were up for nearly five hours on his Twitter, and an on-chain check of one of the scammers’ wallets revealed that the first phishing link got them 36 Ether (ETH), which was worth around $73,000 at the time.

The scammers received over $365,000 in ETH and multiple NFTs from high-value collections, like the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, VeeFriends, and Otherdeeds, among others, bringing the total worth of the scam to nearly $438,000.

According to on-chain data, the fraudster sold the NFTs on OpenSea before transferring their stolen ETH to a crypto mixer to conceal their gains.

He later claimed possession of his account, adding that “anything too good to be true IS A F*CKING SCAM.”

Three of the top ten most valuable NFTs ever sold were sold by Beeple, including one that sold for $69.3 million, the highest amount ever paid by a single owner. Hackers have targeted him because of his celebrity.

Customers lost roughly 38 ETH after a Beeple Discord moderator account was hijacked in November 2021, with hackers pushing a similar false NFT drop.

Binance Turkey Alert Users Of An Ongoing Scam Attempt

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Binance’s ever-growing popularity comes with its downside. The world’s biggest crypto exchange is now facing another battle. No, it is not the regulators, but scammers and fraudsters that are giving the firm a hard time.

Taking advantage of the platform’s expanding fan base, unknown criminals attempted to exploit investors using fake Binance-branded billboards and hoardings in Turkey.

This prompted the Turkish wing of the trading platform to take to Twitter stating that it has no affiliation with the ad and issued a word of caution for users from falling for such scams.

It also added that “Necessary legal processes have been initiated against persons who are clearly involved in fraudulent activities”

The image contains a billboard purportedly sporting an advertisement titled “Binance Tourist exchange” which includes telephone numbers that, when dialed, might link potential victims to scammers.

Binance launched a 24/7 helpline service in Turkey

A few weeks ago, Binance launched its first 24/7 customer service center in Turkey with the primary goal to proactively end fraud cases before it happens. One likely reason for its selection of Turkey is the massive amount volume of traffic the exchange receives from the nation.

As per an announcement, if the pilot test in Turkey is successful, the exchange plans to expand the service globally. As for now, the trading firm will offer customer support in Turkish, only through the app.

Binance, which is regarded as one of the most dominant digital currency exchanges in terms of daily trading volume had discussions with UAE authorities on setting a base camp in the nation.

After Turkey and Lebanon, UAE is the third most rapidly emerging crypto market in the Middle East.

In late December 2021, Binance had inked a deal with the Dubai World Trade Center Authority [DWTCA] intending to carve out a global virtual resource ecosystem. The exchange is one of the first digital currency exchanges to join the DWTCA’s new crypto initiatives.

Binance said in a statement that the agreement allows it to work with DWTCA to “define the idea of hastening the establishment of another industry center point for Global Virtual Assets.”

Australia’s Commonwealth Bank Falls Prey to a Crypto Scam

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Commonwealth Bank of Australia has recently come across fake news spreading on social media, including Facebook. The phony news state that the bank has partnered up with a cryptocurrency trading platform.

The news also encouraged people to invest in crypto assets which the bank completely denies and tags as false.

Australian citizens warned of the scam

The reported scam, which is in the form of articles purports as a story on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, is generally a scam. It lures the customers to click on the link, redirecting them to the scammer’s website.

The scammers will collect the personal details and funds of the users who click on the link.

CBA has reported the issue to the relevant authorities and asked the media publications to take down the fake article.

The bank has warned the customers not to click the links on the articles as it can result in the users losing all their funds. The bank also warned that they would never ask for the customers’ personal information through email or phone calls.

They also asked the customers to be cautious before clicking any link and always navigate to the official website to stay safe and log in.

The scams can also impersonate the bank representatives and can come through phone calls pretending and can gain access to user information, funds and account.

The Commonbank has been a victim of a themed SMS phishing where the scammers spammed the customers with a phishing link pretending to be from the bank.

That’s not it; the bank has cited numerous scams and mentioned them for the customers to stay cautious.

In 2021, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia made history when it partnered with Gemini to become the first high street bank to enable customers to trade cryptocurrencies.

“We believe we can play an important role in crypto to address what’s clearly a growing customer need.”

said Matt Comyn, the bank’s chief executive

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) filed a lawsuit against Meta last month, alleging that it “aided and abetted or was knowingly involved in fraudulent or misleading behavior and statements by the marketers.”

According to the Commission, Facebook failed to handle fraudulent advertising that was shown on the network. In response, a corporate spokeswoman said the company will “examine the ACCC’s latest filing and expect to fight the proceedings.”

Beware! Scammers hacked an Indian Website with a Fake Azuki NFT Airdrop

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Twitter scammers are on a hunting spree for verified accounts. This time it targeted the official Twitter handle of India’s University Grants Commission [UGC] on 10th April. The account which has around 2,96,000 followers was briefly compromised when unidentified hacker/s took control and posted a series of tweets tagging numerous unknown persons across the world.

The fraudsters changed the bio and profile picture replacing them with cartoonish images and a fake promotion of Azuki NFT airdrop. Around 6 hours after the breach, the official handle was restored.

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Lately, CryptoTwitter is being hijacked by NFT scammers who are targeting accounts with large followers in an attempt to make a quick buck via Azuki NFTs. They change profile pictures of the compromised account and pose as one of the co-creators of the Azuki project.

The scammers then flood the account with a secret airdrop of Beanz, an NFT drop that was given out to existing Azuki NFT holders. Through the hijacked accounts, the attackers trick people to claim a bean and connect their Ethereum wallets. Once gained entry into their wallets, the fraudsters promptly drain the NFTs from these wallets.

Among the compromised accounts was that of Emily Buder, the Senior Editor at Quanta Magazine. The tweet sent out from her account read,

Shh Secret Airdrop. For the next 24 hours, we are airdropping Beanz to all active NFT traders in the community! The Beanz will no longer be claimable after they have all been airdropped. Good Luck! #Azuki Claim A Bean azuki.team Welcome To The Garden.

Scammers used Phishing emails to hack into verified Twitter accounts

So far, in two confirmed cases, the owners of the compromised Twitter accounts admitted that the hackers could access their accounts through phishing emails, which seemed to originate from Twitter’s support time.

One journalist who wished to remain anonymous said their hacked account sent out over 6,000 tweets. These tweets then tagged several potential victims that the scheme targeted.

This attack rings similar to the ApeCoin [APE] scam, which also promised to airdrop APE to gullible users and saw bad actors walk away with NFTs worth over $1 million.

User s27 Lost His Bubble Gum BAYC NFT Worth $570,000 to a Scammer

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Unknown BAYC NFT owner “s27” recently lost around $570,000 in NFTs. This was after he swapped his BAYC NFT and two Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) tokens for counterfeit NFTs that were cleverly disguised as real.

A “bubble gum ape” was among the NFTs that went missing. The user claimed to have completed the swap via the “Swap.Kiwi” NFT exchange platform. It allows for direct NFT exchanges between collectors while lowering transaction fees.

Thanks to his Discord channel programmed to watch BAYC and MAYC listings that are at least 5% below their floor price in Ether, crypto enthusiast “quit” (@0xQuit on Twitter) detected the likely fraudulent transaction first.

s27 adds to the victim’s list of the latest BAYC scam

“The pings are rare, but when they happen it generally means one of two things: somebody is panic selling, or somebody is compromised. When I saw the notification for #1584, I instantly knew it was the latter.”

@0xQuit tweet

Quit found that not only did the deceived user transfer his expensive NFTs to a fraudster, but he was also the one who initiated the exchange, as he revealed in a Twitter thread.

Quit then tracked down the scammer’s NFTs, which s27 had gotten following the trade. They all seemed to be authentic BAYC tokens, but they weren’t.

Kiwi uses a “green checkmark” to ensure that tokens are genuine.

However, the way the checkmark appears on the UI can be readily faked using a basic image editor, which is precisely what the fraudster did.

The scammer essentially downloaded several “jpegs” displaying a few high-priced BAYC apes and applied a false watermark to make them look legitimate when posted on Swap. Kiwi.

Shortly after receiving them, the fraudster sold the BAYC and two MAYC NFTs for 98.85 ETH, 23 ETH, and 25.25 ETH, totaling $521,000. Quit said these postings were lower than their respective floor pricing, putting s27’s potential loss at $570,000.

Meanwhile, holders of NFTs appear to be becoming a prominent target for fraudsters of all kinds, who, in turn, continue to come up with increasingly imaginative strategies for their schemes.

A $350,000 Bored Ape NFT Was Sold for Just $115 – Accidental or Scam?

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In what appears to be a golden opportunity for an NFT buyer, a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT was sold for 115 DAI ($115).

On Monday, the former owner “cchan” accepted a 115 DAI bid for BAYC #835, according to OpenSea statistics. The price at which the NFT was sold is 99.9% cheaper than the present floor price of the collection.

Mutant Ape #11670 was also sold to the same purchaser for 25 DAI ($25). The starting price for mutant apes is 22.6 ETH ($76,000).

While it’s vague why the owner would accept such low bids, it looks like cchan mistook DAI for ETH, causing the problem.

A pricey NFT error

Other collectors made three high-value offers for the Bored Ape, with values ranging from 75 to 106 ETH, but all were rejected. BAYC currently has a floor price of 106 ETH ($350,000) as of this writing.

The NFT in question, on the other hand, is wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette, two qualities that suggest it would sell for more than the current floor price.

Apart from being sold at a massive discount to the floor price, the transaction represents an enormous loss for cchan, given the BAYC NFT was acquired for 16 ETH in August of last year.

After the purchase, the new buyer claimed the Ape tokens from the ApeCoin airdrop. The buyer received 12,136 Ape tokens worth $180,000.

The owner disclosed that he was “in the process of working things out as well” when contacted following the publication of this item. He maintains a high level of protection on his accounts, especially while traveling, and would be “hard pushed to label it a hack,” he added.

The owner went on to say that they were on vacation and hadn’t done any business yet.

The previous owner had to approve their wallet to connect with DAI, which is a strange scenario component.

This means they’ll have received a transaction seeking authorization, suggesting that the payment wasn’t made using ETH. Bored Ape and the Mutant Ape collectively were sold by him in a minute, indicating that the seller approved both offers simultaneously.

It’s still unclear if this was a deliberate move or a hack.

Jake Paul Busted Over $2.2M Serial Crypto Scams by Coffeezilla

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Since the SafeMoon class-action lawsuit, Jake Paul has been beneath the radar. He joins many celebrities, including Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, and Lil Yachty, who has called for a jury trial.

Coffeezilla’s freshly unearthed proof will once again bring Jake into the limelight. According to the suit, these celebrities made fraudulent or misleading claims to investors concerning SafeMoon.

Jake’s promotions on Twitter were not labeled as ‘Sponsored,’ according to Coffeezilla. This is a blatant breach of the advertising guidelines of several sites.

Coffeezilla puts Jake Paul under the radar

Coffeezilla decided to delve deeper into Jake’s other projects in the middle of the litigation and commotion. Sacred Devils, Yummy, Milf, and STICKDIX (Jake’s personal NFT project) are among these projects.

Coffeezilla made a comprehensive video on how he conducted his investigation and gathered all the evidence.

He stated that the most challenging aspect of the inquiry was tracing Jakes’ transactions. Even though “everything on the blockchain is trackable and publicly accessible,” he stated.

At the same time, anyone may build an anonymous crypto wallet, further complicating the procedure. Creating anonymous wallets, he claims, poses a complex problem.

Fake wallets make it easier to trace inexperienced influencers. More experienced con artists, on the other hand, are better at concealing their ownership and siphoning off funds “anonymously.”
The main reason for this is that they can generate hundreds of anonymous wallets.

“Jake Paul is sort of in the middle,” Coffeezilla added. He isn’t as stupid as you think he is, but he isn’t as bright as he believes he is.”

The first step in Coffeezilla’s inquiry was to go into his public wallet, “yourmom169.” Jake was paid 39.9 ETH for his Sacred Satan advertising scheme.

Jake duped his community into purchasing sacred devil NFTs, which resulted in complete losses for the purchasers.

Jake Paul led the NFT project STICKDIX, which earned over $1.5 million. Coffeezilla pushed further to locate additional intriguing facts, even though this information is readily available to the general public.

SafeMoon assisted Coffeezilla in busting Jake by using blockchain research and detecting similar scammy practices.

He was looking for a $190,000 transaction from SafeMoon that had been transferred to Jake Paul’s wallet address. MILF and Yummy transactions were linked to the same wallet.

According to the transaction information, Jake Paul defrauded his community for nearly $2.2 million. With the rise in popularity of cryptocurrency, celebrities entice their fans to acquire dodgy tokens to push up their value before dumping them and leaving them with nothing.