Last week, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, combined Instagram with Threads, a brand-new Twitter-like site.
Five days after its introduction, Threads has already established itself as a haven for cryptocurrency scammers. On numerous social networking sites, members of the global Web3 and crypto communities are posting advisories to warn unwary victims about the financial risks posed by these con artists. According to reports, impersonated verified cryptocurrency accounts that are active on Twitter are engaging potential victims on Threads.
A DeFi platform called Wombex Finance recently informed its 78,600 Twitter followers that Threads was copying it. The person behind this bogus Wombex account on Threads is still unknown, but the company seems to think it might be a risky con artist.
The company shared a screenshot of their fictitious Threads profile in a tweet over the weekend with the message, “Please be informed that the Wombex Finance does not have an account on the Threads platform.
Attention, #WombexWarriors! ?
Please be aware that Wombex Finance DOES NOT have an account on the Threads platform.
Any account claiming to be Wombex Finance on that platform is fraudulent and is operated by a scammer!
To avoid scams, always refer to our official channels:… pic.twitter.com/uU8fc2lTiB
— Wombex (@WombexFinance) July 8, 2023
On well-known social networking platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, and LinkedIn, scammers have been known to look for victims.
The FBI had officially warned job searchers using LinkedIn last year to avoid contact with strangers, especially when discussing money and cryptocurrencies. The FBI issued a notice after hearing claims that, by June of last year, LinkedIn members had collectively lost between $200,000 and $1.6 million as a result of cryptocurrency frauds.
Now that Zuckerberg is allegedly using Instagram’s vast global userbase of 2.35 billion monthly active users to support the Threads platform, it seems quite expected that cryptocurrency scammers would want to increase their presence on this new platform.
Leonidas, a well-known figure in the NFT community, revealed to his 93,000 Twitter followers that he is one of numerous well-known members of the community that are being impersonated on Threads. Leonidas has the handle @LeonidasNFT on Twitter.
I and many other large NFT accounts are being impersonated by scammers on Threads.
I just created my official Threads account to help:
"leonidasord"
Please go follow it and spread the word.
The scammer has already gotten 140 replies and nobody seems to know. pic.twitter.com/5nmXmfuvk3
— Leonidas (@LeonidasNFT) July 7, 2023
A wealthy member of the NFT community by the Twitter handle @machibigbrother also suffered a similar online end after his bogus account was discovered on Threads over the weekend.
Damn dude you already have a scam account on threads pic.twitter.com/QTDv3V39H7
— Nataly (NLC) (@NLC972) July 6, 2023
Community users have cautioned others against thoroughly verifying someone’s identity before communicating with them on the new platform after these fraudulent Web3 profiles were discovered on Threads.
People who interact with dubious links advertising crypto airdrops or giveaways run the risk of losing their cryptocurrency holdings.
H1 2023 Web3 Security Statistics
?Total losses from hacks, phishing scams, and rug pulls in Web3 reached $655.61 million in the first half of 2023.
Among them,
108 attacks -> $471.43M
Phishing scams -> $108M
110 rug pulls -> $75.87M pic.twitter.com/8Q9kmDETfQ— Beosin Alert (@BeosinAlert) June 30, 2023
Web3 security company Beosin reports that in the first half of 2023, the total damages from hacks, phishing schemes, and rug pulls in Web3 have already reached $655.61 million.
The most prevalent type of cryptocurrency fraud is phishing scams, which target victims by sending them emails or messages that appear to be from reliable sources.
