Shiba Inu token’s official Twitter account has alerted SHIB investors of a scam which is making the rounds on instant messaging app Telegram. Cybercriminals are replying on general SHIB-related posts, impersonating official accounts related to the meme-based dog coin. To lure in unsuspecting people, these scammers have been aggregating posts about SHIB giveaways and bonus tokens, among other tactics. SHIB investors have been advised to refrain from sharing wallet keys with any stranger.
In a 50-second video tweeted for its two million followers, the SHIB team addressed this ongoing scam. “A fake Shiba telegram group is being shared across social media. They target your hashtags: #shib, #shibarmy, #leash, #shibaswap, #bone,” the team said. It also further noted that neither is any big event planned for SHIB anytime soon nor is any token airdrop or giveaways slated.
“Do not provide email addresses or passwords. Do not join these scam Telegram groups, do not send these scammers any tokens. Do not reply to the bots or fake accounts on social media. Block, report, and stay alert,” the video added.
Reacting to the warning video, Twitter users applauded the SHIB team for proactively addressing this issue and warning the dog coin supporters.
As of now it remains unclear if anybody suffered financial losses due to this scam.
Launched in August 2020, the Shiba Inu token was created by an anonymous somebody pseudo-named Ryoshi. Modelled after the Dogecoin, the mascot of the SHIB token is a cartoonised representation of a dog belonging to the Japanese breed of Shiba Inu.
In recent days, the SHIB token gained popularity after it registered a 50 percent spike and became the 11th-biggest cryptocurrency coin by market value on October 25, WatcherGuru reported.
Currently, each Shiba Inu token is trading at $0.003279 (roughly Rs. 0.000044) as per the Gadgets 360 price tracker.
US-based movie theatre chain AMC Theatres is also considering the acceptance of Shiba Inu tokens as a payment option.
Meanwhile, crypto-related scams are picking pace in several parts of the world, including US.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that scammers are making innocent people use physical cryptocurrency ATMs and digital QR Codes to complete malicious transactions.
Total crypto crimes in 2020 amounted to around $10.52 billion (roughly Rs. 79,194 crore), a report had revealed earlier in April.
The same report had also highlighted that scams and frauds which have plagued the crypto space are a major problem that made for 67.8 percent of the total cryptocurrency crimes in 2020.
Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article.
