Another scam alert! Pretending to be "Binance Exchange" phishing, users defrauded of 500,000 yuan

As investment in cryptocurrencies gains popularity, everyone wants to hop on the get-rich-quick train. However, amidst daily trading and leveraging, many overlook those who lurk in the shadows. While investors celebrate profits and watch the market intently, they themselves become targets of malicious individuals who are also "watching the market." This highlights the importance of cybersecurity awareness and sound personal judgment.

In the world of cryptocurrencies, a day is like a decade. As the newest investment option, cryptocurrencies led by Bitcoin experience surges and drops, attracting a large influx of funds. From retail investors to institutions, from the wealthy to the novices, many are drawn into the frenzy, some leaving with great gains while others burning through their hard-earned money, filled with sorrow.

However, the most painful experience is not when investors fail to sell off during a price drop, but rather when they believe the price will rise, go all-in, only to find themselves ensnared in a scam, losing their sweat and blood money with no way back, only left to lament and hope it was all just a bad dream.

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Recently, netizen Charles Wu shared his heart-wrenching story online about being scammed out of 10 Ether (approximately 500,000 TWD at the time).

Charming 8% Instant Rebate Lures Cryptocurrency Veterans Step by Step into Trap

Charles revealed that on the night of March 11th, a fake announcement was posted in the Telegram channel "Binance Smart Contract Chinese Group" that he usually follows. The announcement claimed that Binance had launched a new smart contract on the Binance Chain on February 25th, offering a limited amount of Binance Coin (BNB) from its self-operated cold wallet Trust as a rebate for the contract.

As long as users transferred BEP2 ETH (a token on the Binance Chain equivalent in price to ETH) to the smart contract, they would receive 8% interest on the principal. In other words, the contract promised that if a user invested 100 CNY, they would immediately get back 108 CNY.

The scam group put a lot of effort into the announcement, not only using official-sounding language but also setting up trading rules to make the whole trap appear more realistic, such as:

1. The limited quantity of BNB for rebates, available until depleted
2. A limit of 5 contract executions per day
3. A maximum contract execution limit of 200 ETH
4. A minimum sending amount of 0.5 BEP2 ETH for the BNB smart contract

Charles, who has been involved in blockchain since 2017 and has experienced the collapse of fraudulent schemes and liquidation, finally let his guard down at this moment, transferring 10 ETH to the contract without hesitation.

As expected, there was no 8% rebate this time, and the 10 ETH disappeared.

After waiting for 10 minutes with no funds credited, Charles inquired with the "Binance Smart Contract Customer Service" in the group. The "customer service" pretended to check the transaction records for him and eventually stated:

"Due to network congestion and block collisions, you need to invest 75% of the previous principal to restart the contract. Once successful, the amount will be rebated along with this one."

Realizing that restarting the contract only required paying the gas fee again, Charles finally realized he had been scammed. He questioned the customer service, but within less than a minute, Charles was kicked out of the Telegram channel where he first saw the announcement, and the channel where he conversed with the customer service disappeared. The fraudsters had left, leaving Charles in disbelief.

After reflecting on the painful experience, Charles shared his story on his personal Medium blog, along with a backup of the scam announcement, hoping to prevent more people from falling victim.

No Matter How Secure the System, "People" Remain the Easiest to Break

This is a typical social engineering scam, where the fraudsters use carefully crafted messages for promotion, operate discussion channels disguised as official accounts, and arrange moles in the channel to discuss cryptocurrencies daily to lower victims' guard.

Once the victims are hooked, the fraudsters let them "taste the sweetness" first and focus on the substantial funds the victims invest the second time, even experienced individuals like Charles could not help but fall for it.

Although cryptocurrencies are known for their decentralized, irreversible, and difficult-to-trace properties, these security designs often become a protective shield for malicious actors, leaving victims blocked by security measures and helpless as they watch their wallets empty.

Readers are advised to always trust official messages and verify any seemingly attractive activities or investment opportunities multiple times, so as not to end up like Charles.

This article is authorized to be reprinted from Zombit Notes: Original Link