The Twitter profile picture of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was replaced last month with a bore app Yacht Club NFT, by scammers to promote phishing sites for the Azuki NFT projects. Prime Minister last year Narendra ModiTwitter account was briefly hacked and used by scammers to claim that India accepts bitcoin as legal tender and will distribute it to citizens!

Scammers have found many creative tricks to steal NFTs and crypto from Twitter users. According to a research by Tenable’s Staff Research Engineer Satnam Narang, they are hacking verified and unverified accounts to impersonate popular NFT projects to lead users to phishing sites.

“Many (scamsters) are hijacking verified and unverified accounts on Twitter, by taking users’ crypto assets to phishing sites, to impersonate popular NFT projects including Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Azukis, Moonbirds and OKBears. To steal,” the research says. ,

Scam mentions in twitter

The research further says that scammers are taking advantage of Twitter mentions to gain attention. After hacking a Twitter account, scammers impersonate popular NFT and crypto projects. They then respond to hundreds of tweets to direct users to phishing websites.

Narang says that these phishing sites are “no different from legitimate NFT project sites, making it difficult for the average cryptocurrency enthusiast to tell them apart”.

Read also | How Not to Be a Crypto Fool: The 5-Point Guide

Phishing sites do not ask for a traditional username and password. Instead, they persuade users to connect to their crypto wallets. Once connected, it becomes easy for scammers to transfer crypto and NFTs held in these wallets.

Airdrop and Free NFT Scams

Scammers are also taking advantage of airdrops and free NFT announcements by blue chip projects.

Recently, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) announced an airdrop of Apcoin for holders of its various NFT projects such as BAYC, Mutant Ape Yacht Club and Bored Ape Kennel Club.

The research states, “Scammers saw this announcement as a ripe opportunity to target interest in this upcoming airdrop and began creating campaigns by hijacking verified Twitter accounts to lead users to phishing sites.” “

Scammers warn scammers!

To add legitimacy to their tweets, some scammers also issue scam alerts and use the threat of a potential scammer as a justification for why they comment or reply to “clean” or “close” their tweets. . After seeding some of these fake tweets, scammers take advantage of a Twitter feature for conversations to restrict who can reply to their tweets, thus letting users know about potential fraud to others. Prevents warning.

what should you do

Narang suggests that Twitter users can protect themselves from scams by viewing everything with some skepticism. Users should always be suspicious if someone is actively tagging them, even from verified accounts.

Also, before clicking on any link or adding a crypto wallet, one should search for the original and official project website.

“Operating from a place of suspicion is likely to provide some cover for users when it comes to scams like this. If you are actively tagged in a tweet, you should be highly suspicious of the intent behind it , even if it came from a verified Twitter account. Look for the original project website and cross-reference the link you are sharing on Twitter to their official website,” Narang said.

“Scammers will also rely on urgency to try to add pressure to users in this area. If an NFT mint is taking place, they will say that there are a limited number of spots left. This urgency makes it easy to take advantage of users who are not. Don’t want to miss this opportunity. After all, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is,” he said.