At least 13 cryptocurrencies fell to zero between this Thursday and Friday in what looks like a… Serial fraud. In total, the fraudsters stole more than R$13 million within a few hours.
According to security firm PeckShield, some of these cryptocurrencies used the names of real projects to deceive investors.
However, others were even stranger. As an example, there is a token called “Changpeng Zhao (CZ),” which shares the same name as Binance’s creator, which has also lost all of its value. Zhao is clearly not involved in the coup.
Serial fraud, 13 cryptocurrencies fall to zero, leaving losses of R$ 13 million
The scams in question are identical in many ways. Aside from being new cryptocurrencies, the total supply of tokens also appears to be the same, a number close to 100 trillion units.
“DarkProtocol (DARK) is down 100%”, reports PeckShield. “Address 0xb880…0832 exchanged 100.100.100.100.100.100.100.1001 DARK for 976.53 WBNB ($230,800).”
“GigaDAO $GIGS is down 100%”PeckShield points out in the following tweet. “Address 0x1C12…AFF6 exchanged 100.100.100.100.100.100.100.1001 GIGS for 1,016.45 WBNB ($240,000).”
#PeckShieldAlert #Slip GigaDAO $GIGS is down 100%
The address 0x1C12…AFF6 has swapped 100,100,100,100,100,100,100.1001 $DARK is 1,016.45 $WBNB (~$240,000)
*Keep this in mind #rugpull Tokens can have the same name as the legitimate ones pic.twitter.com/AMuTXBQkPy— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) November 24, 2023
Although the two warnings appear to refer to the same cryptocurrency, they are actually two different ones. The security company’s tweets continue, with another 11 almost identical scams. Please note that PeckShield reminds us that such projects may bear the name of real projects.
According to analysis by Livecoins, most projects had a warning that it was a “honeypot”. In other words, investors could buy the cryptocurrency, but due to the limitations of the smart contract, they could not sell it.
Cryptocurrencies that fell to zero received warnings that they were scams. Source: Dextools.
The complete list of the 13 cryptocurrencies that committed a milliondollar scam this Black Friday is as follows:
- Jewels (JWL)
- TrustPad (TPAD)
- DarkProtocol (DARK)
- GigaDAO (GIGS)
- Web Web)
- Croesus (CRE)
- IPMB (IPMB)
- DigiFund (DFUND)
- Republic (RPK)
- PapaBear (PAPA)
- Changpeng Zhao (CZ)
- AISurf (AISC)
- Squid Game (SQUIDGAME)
As mentioned earlier, some of these cryptocurrencies are named after real projects in order to deceive their victims. Therefore, they should not be confused with projects of the same name.
How can you protect yourself from these scams?
The above cryptocurrencies have only been traded on decentralized exchanges, which already requires a higher level of knowledge. However, it is always recommended to follow the official social media profiles of the projects to find the correct token contract address.
In any case, the above scams came with several warnings that they were honeypots. Therefore, it is even strange that fraudsters managed to collect so much money in a short period of time.
Finally, the last recommendation is to stay away from shitcoins, that is, focus on solid projects. For example, since the beginning of the year, Bitcoin has risen by 128%, which is a good example of how you don’t need to take unnecessary risks in this market to make good profits.