A new cryptocurrency scam has emerged on social messaging platform Discord, with thieves creating fake exchanges to siphon funds away from unsuspecting victims.
The scam begins with a message to the victim that states “You have been randomly selected for a 0.2 BTC giveaway”.
Users are then prompted to sign up to an exchange called Rixvcoin.com, where a fake 0.2 BTC deposit will be made to the account.
However, when users want to withdraw the 0.2 BTC, a notification pops up to say they must first deposit $1,000 worth of Bitcoin.
While the extent of the scam is so far unconfirmed, Discord users should be warned against signing up to any exchanges that don’t have a notable presence or reputation.
Both Rixvcoin and Aerochange have the same user interface with different URLs, with the scam seemingly being spread across numerous websites.
According to data from Who.is, the domain is registered to an IP address in California, although identity information is censored.
Fake giveaway scams in the cryptocurrency industry aren’t a new phenomenon. During the bull market of 2017, thousands of bots on social media platforms lured in victims with the promise of free crypto for depositing funds to a random address.
Coin Rivet covered the scepticism surrounding Ethereum scam bots on Twitter earlier this year, with high-profile figures like Vitalik Buterin going as far as changing their Twitter handle to say ‘Not giving away Eth’.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.