An Airdrop Phishing Scam Channel On Telegram Impersonating The Keep Network Contains Over 30,000 Members
MetaCert responded to help Keep Network by blacklisting the false Telegram channel’s URL so it will be detected by all the tools powered by the MetaCert Protocol, like our Cryptonite add-on.
Not a day goes by where I don’t hear about something in our community that surprises me. This time it was a Telegram channel impersonating the off-chain Ethereum developers, Keep Network. I was shocked to discover the fake channel contains over 30,000 members; to put that in perspective, the number of members in the legitimate Keep Network Telegram channel is around 4600 members.
At the request of Keep Network’s community manager, Jack Knutson, we’ve already blacklisted the url of the Telegram channel impersonating Keep Network which means any of our products powered by the MetaCert Protocol will recognize and flag the url as phishing. If you’re aware of a phishing site impersonating your company, reach out to us and we’ll do the same for you.
Within the fake channel, a false airdrop promotion is ongoing that scams unknowing and unwary participants out of Ether. Among the 30,000 members in the group, we suspect a vast majority of those accounts are fake, but that still leaves a substantial deficit of roughly 10,000 people who remain at risk.
When the administrators at Keep Network discovered the existence of the phishing channel they were swift to respond and referred their community members to this post containing all official channel addresses. So if you’re in a Keep Network community and it’s not one of those channels on the list, get out.
Fake channels like the one impersonating the Keep Network are the exact reason why MetaCert created our free Security bot for Telegram, which you can learn more about by clicking here. The bot can recognize and classify blacklisted urls, such as a Telegram channel address. If you’re a community manager we highly recommend you install this free bot to keep your members safe. If you’re a community member and the bot isn’t already protecting your channel, let the admins know it’s a tool that can help them keep people safe.
The spectacle of cryptocurrency that has grasped many has provided scammers a way to take advantage of the uninitiated newcomer, and through the MetaCert Protocol, we want to provide developers powerful tools to defend against phishing, impersonation, and fraud. These tools offer protection to community members in the crypto-space, but also can be widely applied elsewhere.
You can protect yourself today with the Cryptonite browser extension, powered by the MetaCert Protocol, for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. It will warn you if you ever find yourself on a questionable website and verify legitimate crypto-sites. To learn more about how we’re using cryptocurrency and the Ethereum Blockchain to decentralize trust and reputation on the web visit us at https://metacertprotocol.com.
