Crypto Close Call: Binance CEO Saves $20M by Alerting of Latest Scam
Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, has warned customers about the newest cryptocurrency scam that tries to trick people into sending to the wrong address.
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao declared on August 2 that he wished to “share this (fortunately) unsuccessful, but highly crafty and near scam episode from yesterday.
He stated that it has saved $20 million before adding, “Hope it may also save you one day.”
The latest tool used by more skilled scammers is the creation of addresses with identical beginning and ending letters. When transferring money, the majority of individuals check this, according to CZ.
Identified Crypto Address Scam
He continued by saying that some wallets conceal the middle portion of the address in order to improve the UI. This works to the con artist’s benefit.
To transmit “dust” to the victim’s wallet, the con artists create a new address with the identical initials and finals. Dust is the insignificant portion of a digital asset that is frequently overlooked in empty wallets.
Because it now appears in the history and has the same beginning and conclusion as the actual target wallet, users may mistakenly choose this scam wallet while making a legitimate transaction.
“You might just copy the wrong one. This is what happened yesterday to a very experienced crypto operator,” said CZ.
But as CZ revealed, there was a nice conclusion to this scam attempt:
“The operator noticed the error right after the transaction, and we were able to request the USDT to be frozen in time.”
The process for recovering the monies now, he continued, includes filing a police report. “At least, the funds won’t leave with the scammers,” he said before adding, “fast reaction is key in these types of recovery.”
A few people who responded to the tweet said they had lost money to this kind of scam. Others meanwhile inquired as to the timing of Binance’s support for ENS (Ethereum Name Service), which would solve the problem of fraudulent crypto addresses.
BNB Perspective
The native token for Binance is currently trading at $240 after losing 3% on the day. The fall, though, is unrelated to fraud because the overall crypto markets are declining once more.
Since it dropped in mid-June as a result of the SEC case, BNB has been fairly flat. Since then, the asset has dropped 22% and is still down 65% from its peak.
