A sophisticated scam using deepfake tech managed to drain liquidity from a Brazilian crypto exchange. In June 2022 the FBI issued a warning that fraudulant investment scams on LinkedIn is rising.
As LinkedIn is widely used for business networking, many find investment offers on the social media platform to be legitimate.
Sean Ragan, the FBI’s special agent in charge of the San Francisco and Sacramento field offices said the following:
“So the criminals, that’s how they make money, that’s what they focus their time and attention on. And they are always thinking about different ways to victimize people, victimize companies.
“And they spend their time doing their homework, defining their goals and their strategies, and their tools and tactics that they use.”
In a new blog post, LinkedIn highlights what to look out for:
‘People asking you for money who you don’t know in person. This can include people asking you to send them money, cryptocurrency, or gift cards to receive a loan, prize, or other winnings
‘Job postings that sound too good to be true or that ask you to pay anything upfront. These opportunities can include mystery shopper, company impersonator, or personal assistant posts.
‘Romantic messages or gestures, which are not appropriate on our platform – can be indicators of a potential fraud attempt. This can include people using fake accounts in order to develop a personal relationship with the intent of encouraging financial requests.’
Why Token Listings Matter?
In the case of the Brazilian crypto exchange, BlueBenx, the scam was highly sophisticated. It is very common for marketers to approach crypto companies that launched their own token.
The approach is often made via social media, Telegram, LinkedIn, Facebook etc. The marketers represent a crypto exchange that offer the company to negotiate listing offers.
When a token is listed in a top tier exchange the price tends to spike higher. The token also benefits from greater exposure. A former managed at Coinbase, which is considered a top tier exchange capitalized over listings at the exchange.
According to the allegations, the former manager alerted his brother and a colleague which tokens to buy prior to the listing. Once the token is listed and the price surges higher, the tokens are sold for a profit.
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