OP 31 July, 2024 - 07:45 PM
(This post was last modified: 29 August, 2024 - 09:19 PM by honeyman1. Edited 2 times in total.)
TON from Telegram is emerging as the most popular blockchain this summer, attracting the attention of scammers.
The TON blockchain has become a crypto success story in 2024. Over the past year, the price of Toncoin has risen more than 5 times, securing a spot in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Clicker games and airdrops, such as Notcoin and Hamster Kombat, have driven daily active addresses above those of Ether.
The 900 million users of the Telegram messaging platform excite supporters who see TON as a potential avenue for mass adoption.
These impressive figures are a dream for any project, but they also attract scammers stuck in Ethereum, where the pool of victims is beginning to dwindle.
Israeli security firm Blockaid reports that cryptocurrency scammers have started migrating to The Open Network (TON), a blockchain initially developed by the Telegram messaging app.
The TON blockchain has become a crypto success story in 2024. Over the past year, the price of Toncoin has risen more than 5 times, securing a spot in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Clicker games and airdrops, such as Notcoin and Hamster Kombat, have driven daily active addresses above those of Ether.
The 900 million users of the Telegram messaging platform excite supporters who see TON as a potential avenue for mass adoption.
These impressive figures are a dream for any project, but they also attract scammers stuck in Ethereum, where the pool of victims is beginning to dwindle.
Israeli security firm Blockaid reports that cryptocurrency scammers have started migrating to The Open Network (TON), a blockchain initially developed by the Telegram messaging app.
![[Image: TON-Delphi-Digital-flip.png]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs3.magazine.cointelegraph.com%2Fmagazine%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F06%2FTON-Delphi-Digital-flip.png)
“We’re seeing a growing interest from scammers in the TON ecosystem because there’s so much value flowing through TON,” says Raz Niv, co-founder of Blockaid.
Crypto newcomers flocking to the platform for games are ideal, unsophisticated targets for scammers.
To make matters worse, draining activities on TON are relatively new, and the network’s wallets don’t yet have the security tools that older chains like Ethereum offer.
One TON scammer was seen phishing victims by enticing them with an offer of 5,000 USDT. This scheme utilizes TON’s unique comment feature, which allows transfers to include a custom message for the recipient at the signing stage in their wallets.
When the transfer appears with the message “Receive 5,000 USDT” and a “Confirm” button, victims get hooked without realizing they are actually authorizing a token drain.
This simple yet effective trick earned one scammer at least 22,000 TON (about $152,000), according to Scam Sniffer.
More recently, the same suspicious address was seen launching a campaign related to a Notcoin airdrop phishing scam.
“As TON gains popularity, phishing scams are on the rise. ScamSniffer has detected a surge in TON-related phishing sites over the past month,” the security firm warned in a May tweet.
Magazine found TON draining scripts — on Telegram, naturally (@ honeymanOne).
Crypto newcomers flocking to the platform for games are ideal, unsophisticated targets for scammers.
To make matters worse, draining activities on TON are relatively new, and the network’s wallets don’t yet have the security tools that older chains like Ethereum offer.
One TON scammer was seen phishing victims by enticing them with an offer of 5,000 USDT. This scheme utilizes TON’s unique comment feature, which allows transfers to include a custom message for the recipient at the signing stage in their wallets.
When the transfer appears with the message “Receive 5,000 USDT” and a “Confirm” button, victims get hooked without realizing they are actually authorizing a token drain.
This simple yet effective trick earned one scammer at least 22,000 TON (about $152,000), according to Scam Sniffer.
More recently, the same suspicious address was seen launching a campaign related to a Notcoin airdrop phishing scam.
“As TON gains popularity, phishing scams are on the rise. ScamSniffer has detected a surge in TON-related phishing sites over the past month,” the security firm warned in a May tweet.
Magazine found TON draining scripts — on Telegram, naturally (@ honeymanOne).
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We’re also testing a new direction—driving traffic to your project, whether it’s phishing or fully legit, we’ll pour traffic 100%. If you’re interested, hit up our manager in the channel with your proposal right away