Top New Crypto Scams of 2022

Fake Offerings, Giveaways and Frauds Continue

By Dominic Alvieri

@AlvieriD

1/11/2022

Crypto scammers are out again pulling some of the same scams we have seen in the past few years. Ransomware groups continue holding corporate and personal data hostage. Bitcoin has retreated in price and the mainstream crypto space has also cooled but the crypto scam market is white hot.

In the first week ending January 7th, 2022 there were 3,716 new domains registered with the keyword "token" and the vast majority being developed are scam related projects.

Giveaways and fake AirDrops continue.

Here are some of the highest risk fake projects to look out for in 2022

Meta Token (Closed)

Facebook rebranding to Meta changed the crypto scam landscape late last year. Several fake Meta coins and tokens have appeared and are registered. Meta token, coin below is now closed (1-8-22) registered as Meta token presale below.

This fake Meta token even had the Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth listed as Corning CEO on their site. They are not very good at this.

Several more Meta related token and coin scam sites have been registered and attempted with more to come this year. Watch out for Meta related scams.

MetaMask Token (Live)

New MetaMask token site has popped up with this fake offering.

metamask-token[.]net

Fake AirDrop for a fake token

No security vendors have tagged this as of 1-10-2022.

Baby MetaMask (Reg)

Several Baby MetaMask versions including babymetamask[.]com are in the works. There is no official MetaMask token or coin.

Twitter Token (Live)

New Twitter token attempt is still ongoing at twittertoken[.]live after reporting it to Twitter and authorities in late 2021. The site and telegram channel are still up.

Be on the look out for other fake offerings from any major corporation. Complicating matters in the announcement that PayPal may be offering a token of their own. Stay tuned for details in the next few weeks.

Other new notables:

Instagram-giveaway[.]com

Amazon, Etsy, GM...

BabyMetaCoin[.]net/xyz...

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and other famous names are being used.

We have all seen the Elon Musk related cryptocurrency scams but several other top names are also being utilized...misrepresented as endorsing a fake token or coin.

Seed phrase phishing is on the rise

Watch out for continued seed phrase and password phishing on crypto related accounts and assets.

Use MFA. Cold store your crypto. Be aware of any offerings or yields that are well above market and please do your due diligence.

Stay safe.

The Cyber Show

By Dominic Alvieri

@AlvieriD

Crypto Scam Year in Review 2021

 Crypto Scams From ADA to Z

By Dominic Alvieri

@AlvieriD

12-31-2021

Cryptocurrency price records were challenged by volume records of crypto scams this year. Broad Wall Street adoption brought out fraudsters from all corners of the world. Coinbase and Robinhood went public this year and zero-day exploits broke records. Elon Musk became the ultimate crypto spokesman.

Crypto exchanges, DeFi platforms and personal accounts were hacked. Verified social media accounts were breached to further expand crypto fraud this year. Several instances of leveraging smart contract exploitation begins with (redacted)

This is a hacked Twitter account below that attempted a Binance giveaway scam. 

January roared in this year with the events at the Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021. Financial and criminal litigators sharpened their pencils and went to work. Besides the slew of criminal prosecutions cryptocurrency regulation framework was hashed. Crypto regulation is coming sooner rather than later. 

Stable coins are under reporting assets and deficits abound. Stable coins require serious attention from regulators in my professional view.

Elon Musk became the spokesman for cryptocurrencies this year even making an appearance on Saturday Night live sparking a selling frenzy. Crypto traders hang on to every tweet and make split second decisions in the middle of the night based on Elon's words.

Scammers took note.

One of the many Musk memes

Endless cryptocurrency frauds

Hurry up and take part in all of the fake giveaways using any name and company to gain your trust and get your digital assets.

MicroStrategy

Cardano

Giveaways, Events and AirDrops are all ways to say good bye to your crypto.

Twitter

Social platforms and anything that could make a buck was used. Twittertoken.[live] is still active. Several variations were attempted this year. BEP20 tokens made it easy for anyone to issue just about anything.

Winklevoss twins

Boss Baby themed crypto scam

Baby Coin Mania

 

UFC-Fantoken. Not a fair fight just fraud.

Account credential phishing skyrocketed

Ponzi-type crypto scams came back

These scams are not new but have come back with a vendetta this year. Send me one coin or token and I'll send you one back is a scam that has been around since Bitcoin began. Social media accounts have been big promoters of this old hoodwink.

Promoters or just outright crypto scammers?

Spider-Man token again timed with new movie launch

Bonus

Crypto miner coming with bootleg torrent download of new Spider-Man movie. 

MetaMask fake support(s)

Year end holiday scam rush

Over 600 crypto scams have been personally reported and I can't list all the crypto scams this year but this gives you an idea into the year of zero-days and crypto scams this 2021 has been. Log4J critical logging exploit exploded on the scene late this year and will no doubt have a lingering impact.

Happy New Year

Crypto scams continue even on New Year's Eve and I'm sure I'll catch at least one on New Year's Day.

Crypto scams are not going away anytime soon.

How do the scammers get away with it?

In many cases they just don't give anything away at all. One new Twitter account allegedly gave away over $81,000 in under one month. Other instances have the scammers just recycle the crypto giving a token amount to a controlled account.

No one is auditing these giveaways. 

A so called "Crypto Professor" with 120,000+ followers even set up a trading firm and site which have been closed. The site alleged an unsustainable 4-6% daily return, ie scam. Coming in January.

Meta New Year

Not from Facebook or Meta.

Do your due diligence 

If it sounds like a duck...

The Cyber Show

by Dominic Alvieri

Twitter @AlvieriD