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PSA: Another phishing spree has hit crypto — ignore all emails about airdrops

source-logo  blockworks.co 23 January 2024 13:17, UTC

The recent spate of cyberattacks on crypto projects continued Tuesday morning, with a number of teams urging users not to interact with malicious emails sent from official accounts.

Data provider Token Terminal, decentralized finance superapp De.Fi and authentication protocol WalletConnect have all sent warnings about their respective incidents.

“Unauthorized airdrop email sent from Token Terminal — do not connect wallets,” Token Terminal told users in an email about 40 minutes after the illegitimate one.

“We are currently investigating a phishing attack involving an unauthorized email sent from us, directing recipients to an unverified site. This email was not authorized by us and may pose a risk to your security.”

Token Terminal and the other two known affected teams then told users not to click on any links in emails that “look suspicious or unexpected.”

The unofficial email promised users access to an early access airdrop for a purported new cryptocurrency tied to the platform.

“I hope this email finds you well! We’re thrilled to share some exciting news that will surely pique your interest. As a valued member of our community, we wanted to personally inform you about the upcoming TokenTerminal Beta Access Airdrop!”

“We’re on the verge of unveiling the beta version of TokenTerminal, and we want you to be among the first to explore its innovative features and capabilities. To express our gratitude for your continued support, we’ve decided to celebrate this milestone with a special airdrop exclusively for our community members.”

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A button underneath directed recipients to claim the airdrop by linking their crypto wallets. Instead of receiving an airdrop, the wallets would instead be drained and sent to the attacker. A similar email was sent to WalletConnect users.

Web3 cybersecurity unit Blockaid, which has been working with affected teams, told Blockworks that in the case of Wallet Connect, the perpetrators had used the same wallet draining code utilized in the Ledger Connect Kit phishing spree in December.

Read more: ‘Wallet drainer’ code added to Ledger library has crypto on edge

At this stage, it appears that only the email domains for each project were compromised. Blockworks has reached out to Blockaid to learn more about the potential connection to the other two known incidents.

It could be that other projects’ emails have been successfully attacked. So for now, it’s best to ignore any and all emails referencing token airdrops for the time being (and never connect your wallet to any protocol or service that you have not thoroughly vetted yourself!).

blockworks.co