According to a report by Cointelegraph, the official Twitter handle of crypto currency exchange Gate.io was hacked by a currently operating fake Tether giveaway, which has put over a million users to the risk of losing funds.
As per the mentioned report, social media major Twitter proves to be an effective bridge to build association with the crypto currency community. This has recently led to the increase in the trend of hacking official and verified Twitter accounts to promote scams online. Unknown hackers took to the official Twitter handle of Gate.io and changed the website URL (uniform resource locator) from Gate.io to gate.com (https://n—gta-ipa.com/)— a fake website imitating the original.
According to the information provided by Cointelegraph, the forged website is carrying out the ongoing promotion of a fraudulent giveaway of 500,000 USDT. The website is also asking users to connect their wallets (such as Metatasks) to the URL in order to be eligible for the said reward. The hackers will gain access to the users’ wallets once they connect it with the fake website, which will lead to the users draining all their funds. Blockchain investigator Peckshield Alert has also confirmed the alleged fraud happening on the exchange’s website. The users have been alerted about the potential risks associated with the loss of private keys.
The report also highlighted that this is the period when crypto currency frauds are expected to be at an all time time high. The investors have been cautioned to double check the trading platforms’ website URLs to ensure the legitimacy of its offerings.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a statement, “Many victims report being directed to make wire transfers to overseas accounts or purchase large amounts of prepaid card. The use of crypto currency ATMs is also also an emerging method of payment. Individual losses related to these schemes ranged from tens of thousands to millions of dollars.”
As per the latest Interpol report, the large majority of 195 countries that constitute the organisation anticipate similar phishing attacks to increase in the subsequent years, thus, they have formed a special unit to counter this type of fraud globally.
More about Gate.io
According to data by CoinMarketCap, one of the greatest crypto exchanges in the world, the exchange has a trading volume of more than $600 million in the last 24 hours.
The exchange has now regained access to the original account. The website’s URL has been fixed and the fraud giveaway post has been removed.
