Even Big Brother's fake accounts are out there! Will Threads become a new haven for crypto phishing links?

Threads, a new social product under Meta and a competitor to Twitter, is still gaining popularity. In less than a week since its launch, the number of registered users has surpassed 100 million as of 10 PM today. However, the issue of fraudulent accounts that were prevalent on Twitter, linked to cryptocurrency phishing, seems to be resurfacing, potentially causing more losses.

Scam Accounts Joining Threads Earlier Than Legitimate Users

According to a report by Cointelegraph reported, ever since Meta introduced the new social app Threads, aimed at text-based forums, scammers seem to have caught on quickly. Several prominent Twitter crypto influencers have issued warnings in the past few days, indicating that there have been multiple impersonator accounts on Threads.

The team behind DeFi platform Wombex Finance warned on July 8 via Twitter alleging that some unscrupulous individuals had preemptively joined the platform using their name and logo even before they had entered the platform.

Even well-known NFT player Machi Big Brother had an account on Threads impersonating his identity before he entered Threads on July 6, as reported.

Fortunately, the above-mentioned Threads accounts have not shared any scam or phishing links at the moment, mostly posting content related to cryptocurrencies.

Twitter has long been a hotbed for cryptocurrency phishing scams, often by hacking into the accounts of celebrities or companies and posting malicious links to steal cryptocurrencies. According to a report by Web3 security firm Beosin reported, approximately $108 million worth of cryptocurrencies have been stolen this year due to clicking on phishing links.

Threads Privacy Policy Raises Concerns

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey expressed concerns and doubts about the privacy policy of the Threads app, which shows that the developers of Threads, Instagram, will be able to access various user data, including financial information and identity data.

However, some researchers responded to Dorsey's tweet stating that Twitter has almost identical data collection permissions as Threads and adopts similar data practices. Yet some expressed more concerns about the financial and health information listed by Threads compared to the location and contact information collected by Twitter.

Some are looking forward to the arrival of decentralized social applications.

Interestingly, Mastodon, another competitor of Twitter and a decentralized blogging community, has seen a surge in newly created accounts since Twitter's recent implementation of reading limit measures. Reportedly, it has gained over 100,000 actively engaging users within two days.