Cryptocurrency Chief Technology Officer Scammed of a Thousand ADA Tokens Just Because of Reading CoinDesk's Report?

Recently, the cryptocurrency market has been heating up, with Bitcoin approaching its historical high point in 2017. As public interest rises, cryptocurrency scams have become more frequent. A highly realistic fake "CoinDesk" website has recently emerged. Fortunately, one investor reported being scammed only a few hundred dollars after discovering it in time, avoiding greater losses.

Cryptocurrency assets have shown strong performance this year. In addition to the rise of DeFi liquidity mining in the second half of the year, Bitcoin and Ethereum have returned to the levels seen during the 2018 bull market. Yesterday (11/24), XRP almost reached $1 on Coinbase. The hot market has led to a proliferation of scams, with high-yield cryptocurrency investment ads appearing on platforms like Facebook and Google. Even the reported Ponzi scheme project "Forsage" is included.

CoinD「ė」sk

Leon Fu, the Chief Technology Officer of TaiFu Indexes, specializing in cryptocurrency indexes, almost fell victim to significant asset losses due to three consecutive fake websites related to cryptocurrencies. He shared his experience on Twitter, where the scam started with a deceptive website that closely resembled"CoinDėsk.".

As shown in the image, the domain name appears similar to the legitimate foreign media outlet CoinDesk, but the fake website's "ė" has a small dot above it, a detail that Leon Fu did not notice. Additionally, the news on the site remained at the Bitcoin price of 13,546 without real-time updates.

The fake "CoinDėsk" website mainly focused on describing Cardano (ADA)'s staking plan, claiming to provide a 22% staking reward. Consequently, Leon Fu was led by external links in the article to the fake official website of the Cardano Foundation, with a fake domain missing one "i" (https://cardanofoundation.org/), which had an identical interface.

Subsequently, Leon Fu proceeded to the final step of sending assets, a fake website adalite.io (adalite.org), a service provider for ADA wallets and staking services, where he lost thousands of ADA tokens.

Always Conduct "Test Transactions"

Fortunately, Leon Fu did not lose a significant amount of assets. He mentioned that he always conducts "test transactions" with small amounts before any transfer, a habit that ultimately saved him.

During a bull market, the crypto market is often rife with scams, including OTC fraud, overpriced graphics cards and mining machines, get-rich-quick schemes, and Ponzi schemes that prey on human nature. Scam websites like those mentioned in this article are also prevalent on social media platforms.

Many online scams involve promises of sending coins to a certain address and then doubling the return, a tactic that is not uncommon, as reported earlier with Elon Musk's Bitcoin and Ethereum giveaway campaign. Scammers utilize Elon Musk's tweets and create fake "blue checkmark" accounts with names similar to Musk's and verified on Twitter, leaving scam "Giveaway" URLs in the replies to deceive users into sending Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Therefore, users should pay attention to the authenticity of websites and verify if there are any subtle differences in domain names. Before making any significant transfers, it is advisable to maintain the good habit of conducting test transactions with small amounts.