Scams Impersonating Vitalik Buterin Mount Amid the Merge

The excitement around the Ethereum Merge is tremendous for the PoS proponents and the community of the second-largest cryptocurrency.

It also presents a very lucrative opportunity for fraudsters, who tried to take advantage even before the event.

• Ethereum foundation had earlier warned the community to be on high alert for scams trying to take advantage of users during this transition.
• But that has not stopped these malicious entities from hacking the official Twitter handle of Go First airline, which was later changed to “vitalik.eth” in the early hours of September 14.
• The compromised account’s display picture was also changed to that of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
• The tweet following the security breach promoted a fake giveaway scam of $100,000 ETH.

seems like everybody impersonates @VitalikButerin, but you gotta love the blue check and prominent amplification.

(p.s. THIS IS A SCAM) pic.twitter.com/xw3IHI7muv

— Steve Randy Waldman (@interfluidity) September 14, 2022

• To give a sense of authenticity and dupe investors, scammers are now eyeing Twitter accounts with a “verified” mark and then changing into Buterin’s profile picture, name, and profile description. So far, several profiles have suffered similar fates.
• To identify the fraudsters, it is essential to check the Twitter handle or username of the profiles that are impersonating Buterin.
• In addition to fake giveaways and airdrops that mislead investors into getting access to their crypto wallets, other scams could come in the form of fraudulent ETH 2.0 tokens, phishing schemes, and mining pools.
• With a relatively new concept like staking, many novice crypto users may end up joining a staking pool that offers attractive terms but could pull the rug after the funds are deposited.