Since the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency, meme-based digital money, has struck its all-time high in October, it didn't take too long for fraudsters to capitalize on the craze. Shiba Inu token is a decentralized cryptocurrency established by an unidentified person or group identified as "Ryoshi" in August 2020.
As per the information shared, live YouTube videos offering phony token giveaways had racked up hundreds of thousands of views, whilst Telegram groups supporting similar frauds have also proliferated.
Tenable has uncovered numerous Shiba scams that all employ a remarkably identical strategy. Accounts live-stream outdated material from a June event involving Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk, a well-known figure amongst crypto enthusiasts, with on-screen directions for consumers to deposit an arbitrary amount of currency into a wallet in exchange for the promise of receiving twice as much or more.
According to Satnam Narang, a researcher at Tenable, scammers have gained $239,000 in cryptocurrency since October 20 based on a study of internet wallet addresses related to dubious Shiba Inu-themed pages.
Although Shiba may be one of the newest virtual currencies to draw attackers looking to prey on investors, it is merely the most recent step of a growing problem. In total, the FTC recorded more than $80 million in recorded consumer losses from cryptocurrency fraud in May. Victims' damages are not covered by the federal government since cryptocurrency exchanges lack the same statutory protections as standard finance exchanges.
Customers have been reporting scams since at least May, as per the Shiba Inu token's official Reddit page. And phony-freebies aren't the only way crooks are taking advantage of the coin to deceive would-be investors.
Tenable discovered one effort in which scammers lured customers to a phishing URL posing as the cryptocurrency wallet Trust. It's uncertain whether the link succeeded in duping any victims into disclosing their wallet information.
The fraudulent giveaways reported by CyberScoop received over 500,000 views in total. Several streams originated from the very same Thailand-based account, "SHIBA INU." All of the live-streamed videos were in the top 10 search results, frequently outranking a cautionary video about the fraud with only 1,400 views.
Scams involving the coin have become so prevalent that Shiba developers published a video on Twitter on Sunday, 21st of November, advising customers to avoid giveaway videos and not disclose their wallet addresses. In addition, the developers released a video warning of suspicious behavior on Telegram, in which fraudsters spoof accounts and establish bogus users.