Users of cryptocurrency lending startup BlockFi reportedly faced a racist and vulgar attack via email. On the afternoon of 8th March, the company’s employees identified an attacker who spammed BlockFi’s sign-up page with fake accounts using profanity in its correspondence.
Before BlockFi caught the problem and paused registration for maintenance, the perpetrator had already sent an estimated 500 emails that had “vulgar and racist” language. According to reports, the individual behind the spam attack had entered offensive terms as the first and last names for the said fake accounts.
The latest development comes right after BlockFi sent out a tweet notifying a temporary halt in the platform’s new signups. The crypto lending startup did not elaborate except for a tweet that said it was experiencing a minor technical issue.
However, the platform is yet to publish an official acknowledgment of the same. One of the victims of the spam attack tweeted that she had no idea how far this “malicious actor” spread racist language through the platform. Condemning BlockFi, one victim said,
“But it is absolutely shameful that the company is promoting itself with ZERO public apologies or acknowledgment of that fact that on a Sunday morning their software was used to send out RACIAL SLURS to people who had never even signed up for their services in the first place.”
BlockFi’s Only Response On Forbes
CEO and Co-founder, Zac Prince’s only official statement regarding the attack:
“I think this spam attack [was] designed to try and create negative sentiment around BlockFi by trying to get emails sent with vulgar language in them.
This is not the first time that the crypto platform had a temporary data breach. Last May, BlockFi identified an unauthorized intrusion into its systems that exposed some of its client data.
Moreover, the crypto derivatives exchange FTX had reported facing a similar attack this Feb. During this, the perpetrators briefly compromised from Blockfolio’s Signal app, deliver racist messages. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried had earlier speculated that a potential competitor could be behind the attack.