Two weeks ago, a Mumbai-based fan of the Korean pop (K-pop) band BTS realised that she and her connections had been inadvertently following a cryptocurrency account on Twitter. Over the next few days, cryptocurrency-related posts began to show up on the timelines of ARMYAdorable Representative MC for Youth, the term associated with millions of BTS fans.
The BTS fans also noted that quite a few cryptocurrency accounts were being tagged in ARMY giveaways or rewards provided to users selected at random, including albums or merchandise worth $25 to $250 on averagea common practice among K-pop fan clubs. They figured that certain ARMY giveaway hosts were asking them to also follow cryptocurrency handles, without providing any guidance on its potential risks.
Crypto could really use the credibility of a huge following comprising young and active users, especially in an environment where digital currency is in a legal grey area across the world.
Twitter quickly moved to block crypto accounts on the grounds that they had been using inauthentic means to inflate their followers and amplify content.
Smells Like A Scam
Twitterati among the ARMY stumbled upon the scam when some younger members said they had been receiving calls from various countries after clicking on certain giveaway links.
On digging deeper, we found some of the highly followed ARMY accounts had sold their accounts to what seemed like shady cryptocurrency accounts, the Mumbai-based ARMY fan who was following one such suspended account said.
The ARMY accounts username, handle, display picture all had changed to match the crypto vibes.
All ARMY-related posts had been replaced. What remained were posts on crypto, for crypto, and by crypto folks.
Buried under 6,000-plus crypto tweets of the last two months was one BTS-related retweet from 2019, the only thing that could prove it had once been an ARMY account.
The few ARMY accounts hosting crypto-sponsored giveaways were all hyping each other up and urging their followers to engage with the same set of crypto accounts. If they asked fellow ARMY to also follow their new backup accounts, it meant their main account would turn into a crypto account soon.
When ARMY members started questioning these crypto accounts, most either blocked their critics or temporarily deactivated the accounts. Some ARMY accounts, meanwhile, admitted to taking commissions for crypto giveaways and apologised.
If people see suspicious activity, the most important thing they can do is report it to us, the spokesperson added.
Speaking of suspicious activities, a lot of the crypto accounts that the compromised ARMY promoted also had an egg emoji in their Twitter bio and username. Its a mystery we could not solve and decided to file under the dark internet subculture.
Between 2015 and 2018, the internet was rife with giveaway marketing stunts.
Called airdrops, these distributed free crypto coins and tokens as part of an ICO (Initial Coin Offering), an IPO-equivalent for crypto to promote virtual currency.
Many were eventually revealed to be scams.
A lot of these airdrops were just Ponzi and pyramid schemes set up to create a crypto bubble, experts told ET.
Giveaway projects are typically used as growth hacks where every retweet can fetch a 0.01% extra return, say 400 retweets in return for 100 extra coins. They take different formats such as simple meme competitions or follow-back initiatives on Twitter, said Ramani Ramachandran, CEO of Singapore-based blockchain firm ZPX.
Be that as it may, the community is split on the matter, he added, and five out of 10 traders would tell you that a giveaway project is a growth hack and not a scam.
Nonetheless, in 2018, Twitter announced guidelines prohibiting any form of crypto ICO advertisements on its platform.
This time around, however, crypto evangelists reckon that the giveaway scam may not be about cryptocurrency at all. That has made it an even bigger worry.
Scamsters may be looking at youngsters in highly-engaged communities such as gaming, football or K-Pop because they are easier targets, said one crypto evangelist on condition of anonymity.
Why Easier Targets?
A typical scam would involve a link that takes the victim to a third-party website, where it may use a three-pronged approach depending on the type of scam.
One, it may seek a young users credit card or crypto wallet details for potential phishing attacks. Two, their personal details for potential hacking attempts. Three, they may wrongfully charge a subscription fee to dupe young users.
The malicious result is when they hack into a users system, gain access to remote devices and use that for blackmail.
In fact, in the words of one frustrated ARMY member: Ever since we have called out these suspicious giveaway accounts, they have created new accounts and are harassing and calling for blocking of legitimate ARMY accounts. This is happening to other K-pop fan communities as well. We are being targeted for refusing to let them (crypto accounts) use us! We dont want to be dragged into this. We just want our space back.
One-Trick Pony
The shadowy crypto accounts had missed a trick, though.
Little did they know that BTS fans adhere to an unwritten commandment: Thou shalt not make money off BTS.
Ive noticed this common wariness among hardcore ARMY that people are always out to take advantage of ARMY clout and make a quick buck. Its amazing how strict they are about discouraging this, said an ARMY fan from Hyderabad who is in her 40s.
In June last year, when BTS donated $1 million to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, its loyal fan club matched that within a day and donated to the cause.
Our BLM donation made news everywhere. Maybe these crypto guys got greedy and thought it would be easy to make a quick buck out of us, said another Indian-Canadian ARMY fan in her late 30s.
In fact, last week, 34 of the most prominent ARMY fan bases from around the world got together on Twitter to warn gullible ARMY members against these sponsored crypto giveaways, even urging caution with self-funded and ARMY-funded giveaways as well. They also requested members to unfollow and block suspicious accounts.
We have never nor will we ever partner with/participate in/promote/or host sponsored giveaways, they said in a statement.
However, those at the receiving end of these scams look at this as a cop-out on the platforms behalf and question why they should carry the burden of moderating bad elements.
The Indian cryptocurrency community, too, must call out the bad actors and actively discourage low-quality crypto assets, said Nitin Sharma, partner at Antler Global and previously the founder of Incrypt Blockchain.
Recently, the Supreme Court overturned a banking ban on trading crypto assets, triggering a massive influx of new sign-ups and trading activities. But the government is mulling a ban on both the trading and holding of all forms of cryptocurrency.
We firmly believe that the government will sooner than later move towards regulation of cryptocurrency in India rather than banning it altogether, said Nischal Shetty, founder of leading Indian cryptocurrency exchange Wazir X and part of popular cryptocurrency campaign #IndiaWantsCrypto. We want to ensure that when the regulators come, its a cleaner ecosystem than a dirty one to govern and supervise.
(Illustration and graphics by Rahul Awasthi)
Visit link:
A 'crypto' scam is brewing on Twitter, and social media at large - Economic Times
- Bitcoin Just Did Something It Has Only Done 3 Times Before. The Cryptocurrency Usually Does This Next. - The Motley Fool - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Market News: Bitcoin Halving Steadies Price, Network Transaction Fees Spike - Investopedia - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Just Did Something It Has Only Done 3 Times Before. The Cryptocurrency Usually Does This Next. - Yahoo Finance - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- 10 Best Cryptocurrencies To Buy In April 2024 - Forbes - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Movement Labs raises $38 million to build layer 2 blockchain on Ethereum with Facebook tech - Fortune - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson Reiterates Core Purpose of Cryptocurrency Here's What You Need to Know - Cryptonews - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- From Cryptocurrency to Cannabis: 7 Penny Stocks on the Rise - InvestorPlace - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- South Carolina: Cryptocurrency scams on the rise in Upstate - WYFF4 Greenville - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Binance BNB Memecoin Traders Join 100X New Cryptocurrency On Uniswap - Yahoo Finance - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- The Future of Real Estate: Investing in Tokenized Properties with Cryptocurrency - ForexLive - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- The Current Position with Cryptocurrency Regulation in the United States - Latest Cryptocurrency Prices & Articles - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- 3 Must-Know Facts About Ethereum, Before You Buy the Cryptocurrency - The Motley Fool - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency: 3 Meme Coins To Watch In May for Exponential Gains - Watcher Guru - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- EOS Falls 14% In Bearish Trade By Investing.com - Investing.com - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- The UItimate Cryptocurrency to Buy With $1,000 Today - The Motley Fool - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Romance scams involving AI images, cryptocurrency on the rise in Chicago - CBS Chicago - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Halving Event Of 2024: The Aftermath Forbes Advisor Australia - Forbes - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Ethereum Classic Down More Than 4% Within 24 hours - Benzinga - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency: Top 3 Coins To Buy Now For 10X Gains In 2024 - Watcher Guru - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- What's going to be different with the halving of Bitcoin this time? - Euronews - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency OKB Decreases More Than 3% Within 24 hours - Benzinga - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency OKB Decreases More Than 3% Within 24 hours - Investing.com UK - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Kaspa Falls More Than 3% In 24 hours - Benzinga - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- BRICS To Replace US Dollar With Cryptocurrency for Trade - Watcher Guru - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Halving Sparks Unprecedented Transformation in Cryptocurrency Market - West Island Blog - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Influential Analyst on YouTube Shares High-Potential Cryptocurrency That Could Beat Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE) Gains in This Bull Run -... - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Uniswap Up More Than 3% In 24 hours By Benzinga - Investing.com UK - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin is halving again what does that mean for the cryptocurrency and the market? - The Conversation - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Ethereum Classic Down More Than 4% Within 24 hours By Benzinga - Investing.com UK - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- RackNerd Expands Cryptocurrency Payment Options with Coinify Integration, Accepting Over 30 Cryptocurrencies - PR Web - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- What Meltdown? Crypto Comes Roaring Back in the Philippines. - The New York Times - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Chinas cryptocurrency investors made gains of US$1 billion in 2023 - South China Morning Post - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- 1 Super Cryptocurrency Could Soar to $200,000 by 2025, According to a Wall Street Analyst - The Motley Fool - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Miners Need to Report their Energy Use - Earthjustice - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Understanding the Fundamental Differences Between Cryptocurrency and Fiat Currency - FinSMEs - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- SOL Flips BNB, Becoming 4th Largest Cryptocurrency as Ethereum Becomes Next Target - CCN.com - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Prosecutors seek from 40 to 50 years in prison for Sam Bankman-Fried for cryptocurrency fraud - The Associated Press - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency: 3 Meme Coins That Could 15x This Bull Season - Watcher Guru - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Can the Bitcoin surge push India to overcome its cryptocurrency hurdles? - The National - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- The Ultimate Cryptocurrency to Buy With $1,000 Today - Yahoo Finance - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency laundryman gets hung out to dry - The Register - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Bitcoin price predictions: How much more could it rise in 2024? - Euronews - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Shiba Inu Is Skyrocketing: Is It a Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Right Now? - Yahoo Finance - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- 1 Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Before It Soars 1,328%, According to Cathie Wood of Ark Invest - The Motley Fool - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- The other Bitcoin rally: How scams are cashing in on the cryptocurrency fever - EL PAS USA - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Kalshi Prediction Market To Introduce Cryptocurrency Betting (Payouts In USD) - Blockchain Magazine - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Hits Record $72,000, Emboldening Crypto Industry - The New York Times - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Solana (SOL) Flips BNB to Become 4th Largest Cryptocurrency - Watcher Guru - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Predicting which Cryptocurrency will Boom in 2024 - ForexLive - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Nigeria's Cryptocurrency Crackdown Will Have Consequences, Experts Say - Voice of America - VOA News - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Crypto ETN providers head for UK but urge rethink on retail ban - Financial Times - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Trump Signals Positive Stance on Cryptocurrency If Elected to the White House - Yahoo Finance - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Bulls vs. Bubble Bears: A Cryptocurrency Clash - Crypto Times - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Imprison crypto fraudster Bankman-Fried 40 to 50 years, say feds - New York Daily News - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Is This The Best Cryptocurrency to Buy With $1,000? - Analytics Insight - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- How Immortalboost.com Connects Gamers and Cryptocurrency - TheXboxHub - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Avalanche (AVAX) Created Millionaires, Here's The New A.I Exchange Cryptocurrency Predicted Huge Gains In 2024 - Analytics Insight - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Solana volume leapfrogs Ethereum as memecoin frenzy seen sending price to $415 - DLNews - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Bitcoin alternatives, from Ether to Dogecoin - Quartz - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Price on March 12: Bitcoin trades near $72,000; Toncoin, Avalanche jump up to 34% - The Economic Times - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency: 3 Coins To Watch Under $1 as Bitcoin Hits $56,000 - Watcher Guru - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- The Ultimate Cryptocurrency to Buy With $1,000 Today - The Motley Fool - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- The vast Ponzi scheme that is cryptocurrency - The Pasadena Star-News - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Exploring the World of Global Cryptocurrency Exchanges - Indiana Daily Student - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Prices And News: Bitcoin Price Hits 27-Month High Above $57000 - Investor's Business Daily - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- 7 Best Cryptocurrency Investing Strategies | Investing | U.S. News - U.S News & World Report Money - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency fraud costs: $1.56 billion in 2023 - Accounting Today - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Expanding Horizons: WDC Quantify's 2024 Plan to Revolutionize Cryptocurrency Trading and Investment - Morningstar - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- BC Court Upholds Temporary Freeze on Cryptocurrency Mining Connections to BC Hydro Grid - BlockTribune - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Texas Blockchain Council and Riot Platforms Win Temporary Restraining Order Against DoE Cryptocurrency Mining ... - BlockTribune - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Bitcoin price passes $57,000 to hit 2-year high - Quartz - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- More from Fed's Schmid: Would be a mistake to consider cryptocurrency as a currency - ForexLive - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- 1 Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Before It Soars 4,500%, According to Cathie Wood's Ark Invest - The Motley Fool - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency: 3 Coins That Could Surge in March - Watcher Guru - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Blockchain Unveiled: Beyond Cryptocurrency Lies a World of Opportunity - AutoGPT Official - AutoGPT - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Updated Bitcoin prices outlook for 2024 By Investing.com - Investing.com - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Suspicious Activity Surrounds BitForex Cryptocurrency Exchange The Merkle News - The Merkle Hash - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Donald Trump's Cryptocurrency Portfolio Tops $5M, Thanks to $2.9M in Trump-Branded Tokens Bitcoin News - Bitcoin.com News - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Matthew Perry's X account hacked and soliciting cryptocurrency donations through fraudulent site - MSN - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Bitcoin: Here's why the flagship cryptocurrency keeps soaring - Cointribune EN - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]