Phishing Scams Continue To Target EOS.IO
As phishing campaigns go, EOS.IO isn’t out of the woods.
Scammers continue to target the EOS.IO token offering as a fast approaching deadline will see the platform transition to the main-net.
The attacks come in the wake of security issues that saw hackers temporarily hijack the Zendesk account of Block.one, the company that will be funded by proceeds from the EOS.IO token offering. Although the Zendesk issue has abated, attackers have sought other vectors to send phishing emails and exploit unaware users. The latest scam is very similar to others that attempt to mimic an official notification from the company. One community member, Josh Brown, grabbed a screenshot of the in an effort to let other users know about the scam.
The tale is a familiar one. A site with this symbol, “ȯ,” where an “o” should have been in EOS is linked to a button where users are told they can claim unsold EOS tokens left over from the offering. The almost imperceptible mark in eȯs.com (DO NOT VISIT THIS SITE, IT IS A SCAM), makes it hard to see. Users are prompted to turn over a private key (NEVER TURN OVER YOUR PRIVATE KEY TO ANYONE) in order to claim their tokens, and when they do, the phisher has access to their wallet.
Scams like the ones targeting huge companies like EOS.IO are to be expected. As ambitious projects gain popularity they are often the subject of debate and find themselves in the crosshairs of malicious actors in whose eyes appear dollar signs when they spy huge communities gathering to support projects with capital.
MetaCert builds tools that fight against phishing attacks by alerting users to the malicious sites before they make the mistake of turning over their credentials. If EOS users used tools powered by the MetaCert Protocol, like our browser extension for Chrome, Opera, and Firefox, Cryptonite, they would have been warned if they clicked on a phishing site. What’s more, Cryptonite’s black shield only turns green when visitors go to a verified cryptocurrency site; the malicious site copying the official EOS site wouldn’t have turned the shield green, so users would have known it was a fake.
MetaCert is ready to forge partnerships in order to stage a counterattack against the kinds of phishing attacks that responsible for so much heartache. We know that when reports abound that millions of dollars are being effectively stolen from investors by scammers, held in a number of malicious actors’ wallet addresses, it does damage to both the project and the ecosystem as a whole.
Let’s work together to put an end to phishing. We welcome companies who want to protect their communities to step forward and find out how MetaCert can help.
MetaCert is creating solutions for anti-phishing, child safety, brand protection, crypto-address verification, and news credibility with the MetaCert Protocol. You can find out more about the MetaCert Protocol by joining our Telegram community to stay up to date on our blockchain project. Remember to install Cryptonite, to protect yourself from phishing scams before it’s too late.
