Crypto Rip-off: SpaceX Tokens for Sale

Authored by: Neil Tyagi  

Rip-off artists know no bounds—and that additionally applies to stealing your cryptocurrency. Crypto scams are like every other monetary rip-off, besides the scammers are after your crypto property reasonably than your money. 

Crypto scammers use many ways in different monetary crimes, equivalent to pump-and-dump scams that lure buyers to buy an asset with pretend claims about its worth or outright makes an attempt to steal digital property. 

This time scammers had been making an attempt to get an investor to ship a digital asset as a type of cost for a fraudulent transaction. 

It begins with a Tweet used as bait to lure harmless cryptocurrency buyers into buying a non-existent token, associated to a reputed firm, SpaceX. 

The theme used right here by scammers is the sale of the official cryptocurrency of SpaceX. Within the above picture we are able to additionally see the attain of the tweet is excessive. (224.4K views) 

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The hyperlink current on this tweet redirects to  house[-]launch[.]internet, which is already marked as malicious by McAfee. 

A WHOIS search on the positioning reveals it’s hosted on Cloudflare. Cloudflare has more and more develop into the primary selection for scammers to host malicious web sites and shield their property. 

A WHOIS lookup on the area reveals redacted private data. No surprises there  

When we click on on the hyperlink, it takes us to a login web page and asks for AreaX login credentials. This web page was designed as a phishing web page for folks who have actual SpaceX login credentials. 

For individuals who don’t have SpaceX credentials, they’ll use the signup hyperlink.  

After we log in, it redirects to a touchdown web page the place one can buy the supposedly unique cryptocurrency launched by SpaceX

As you possibly can see, it impersonates because the official SpaceX portal for getting their token. It additionally has all the weather associated to SpaceX and its branding. 

In the above picture, we are able to see that scammers are using the social engineering trick of FOMO (Worry Of Lacking Out) as they’ve created a timer showing that the pretend tokens are solely obtainable for buy for the subsequent 10 hours. This additionally makes certain that the rip-off would finish earlier than all of the on-line safety distributors flag the positioning. 

Scammers also enable customers to buy pretend tokens from about 22 cryptocurrencies, the distinguished being Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT. 

Scammers even supply a bonus of faux SpaceX tokens if customers are able to buy a minimal quantity

Right here we are able to discover the BTC pockets tackle of the scammers and see the transactions associated to those wallets. 

The crypto pockets addresses of scammers for the next currencies are.  

• BTC bc1qhhec8pkhj2cxtk6u0dace8terq22hspxkr5pee 
• USDT 398a9BF5fe5fc6CaBB4a8Be8B428138BC7356EC1 
• ETH 16a243E3392Ffd9A872F3fD90dE79Fe7266452F9 

Taking a look at transactions associated to those addresses, we discover folks have develop into victims of this rip-off by sending funds to those wallets. The Bitcoin pockets above has gathered round 2,780 US dollars. You too can see three of the final transactions made to the account. 

Equally, for Ethereum, the scammers have gathered round 1,450 US {dollars} 

We noticed two widespread cryptocurrencies, however scammers are utilizing about 22 completely different crypto wallets.  

Crypto phishing scams consistently evolve, and new ways emerge usually. Customers ought to take the initiative to coach themselves in regards to the newest phishing strategies and scams focusing on the cryptocurrency group. Additionally, keep knowledgeable by researching and studying about latest phishing incidents and safety finest practices. 

IOC (Indicator of Compromise)