Uniswap Founder Hayden Adams Raises Alarm on Cryptocurrency Scam Using ENS Domains
Summary:
Uniswap's founder, Hayden Adams, warns of a fraudulent scheme involving the use of Ethereum wallet addresses as Ethereum Name Service domains, likely aimed to misdirect digital asset transfers. User interfaces are encouraged to block such addresses, given their potential to facilitate substantial losses. Similar deceptive practices have been reported, with crypto traders receiving phishing emails from impersonating renowned Web3 companies pushing fake airdrops, a scam thought to have netted scammers around $3.3 million.
Decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap's originator, Hayden Adams, has alerted those involved in cryptocurrency about a fraudulent scheme involving the use of wallet addresses as Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains. Adams illuminated this scam on social media platform X on Feb. 14, where he revealed fraudsters' attempts to impersonate his Ethereum wallet. These counterfeiters have stolen his wallet address, registered it using .eth as an ENS wallet, with an aim to deceive users. Adams further explained that entering his wallet address would yield an unrelated ENS match as the first search result on certain user interfaces. This is an attempt to dupe crypto senders into involuntarily transferring assets to incorrect recipients mimicking legitimate addresses.
Adams advised user interfaces to blacklist such addresses to prevent potential losses arising from the scam. While this particular scam tactic may appear novel, Taylor Monahan, the creator of Ethereum wallet managing platform MyCrypto, mentioned a similar scheme perpetrated during MyEtherWallet's inception. According to Monahan, they circumvented registration and resolutions for names beginning with "0x". Nick Johnson, ENS's chief developer and founder, echoed those sentiments, advising interfaces against autocompleting names, declaring it to be "excessively risky", and prohibited by their user experience guidelines.
Further compounding these issues, crypto traders reported receiving emails last month from fraudsters masquerading as renowned Web3 firms. This elaborate phishing attack saw the wide circulation of false airdrops touted by pretend firms like Cointelegraph, WalletConnect, Token Terminal, among others. The origin of this large-scale phishing attack was later traced back to a security failure at the email marketing entity, MailerLite. The company verified on Jan. 24 that intrepid hackers usurped control of Web3 accounts via a social engineering scheme. Analytical firm Nansen’s investigative team approximates that the scam garnered about $3.3 million sent to the phishing wallet since the start of the campaign.
Published At
2/14/2024 3:26:23 PM
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