You might want to be extra suspicious in case you receive an email from Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, cordially asking you to send money: chances are someone is trying to scam you out of your funds.
Buterin has taken to Twitter to warn his followers that malicious actors are pretending to be him in order to trick unsuspecting cryptocurrency rookies into sending them their coins.
“If you get an email that looks like it’s from me asking for ETH, please do NOT send,” the founder cautioned. “Either contact me first or if you’re lazy just assume it’s a fraud.”
If you get an email that looks like it's from me asking for ETH, please do NOT send. Either contact me first or if you're lazy just assume it's a fraud.
— Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) January 22, 2018
As Buterin goes on to explain, the scammers – posing as him – claim his “laptop literally died” before proceeding to ask for funds – until he has had a chance to access his “cold wallet a week from now.”
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Perhaps due to its growing popularity, the cryptocurrency space is flush with various scams and phishing traps these days.
Earlier in January, there were tons of suspicious copycats of popular exchange desk Binance on Google. The majority of these pages were designed to forward visitors to the official Binance site – but via a referral link.
Those curious to investigate some of the active cryptocurrency scams on the internet ought to check out the Ethereum Scam Database here.
Meanwhile, don’t get too excited if you get some mail from Buterin: it’s about as special as getting an investment opportunity from a Nigerian prince.
Stay tuned for the launch of our new channel, Hard Fork, where we will be taking a deep dive into everything cryptocurrency and blockchain.
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