MetaMask scammers take over government websites to target crypto investors

Crypto scams targeting MetaMask users are utilizing government-owned website URLs to con victims and entree their crypto wallet holdings.

Ethereum-based crypto wallet MetaMask has been a long-standing people for scammers — which involves redirecting unwary users to fabricated websites that petition entree to the MetaMask wallets. Cointelegraph’s probe connected the substance recovered galore government-owned websites being utilized to perpetrate this nonstop scam.

Official authorities websites from India, Nigeria, Egypt, Colombia, Brazil, Vietnam and different jurisdictions person been recovered redirecting to fake MetaMask websites, arsenic shown below.

MetaMask scammers usage authorities websites to bargain from crypto users. Source: Cointelegraph (via Google)

Cointelegraph alerted MetaMask astir the ongoing scams but did not person a effect by publication.

Once a idiosyncratic clicks connected immoderate of the rogue links placed wrong the authorities website URLs, they are redirected to a fake URL alternatively of the archetypal URL “MetaMask.io.” Once accessed, Microsoft’s built-in information — Microsoft Defender — warns users astir a imaginable phishing attempt.

Microsoft’s informing against the MetaMask phishing websites. Source: Cointelegraph

If users disregard the warning, they are greeted by a website resembling the authoritative MetaMask website. The fake websites volition yet inquire the users to nexus their MetaMask wallets to entree assorted services connected the platform.

Comparison betwixt the archetypal and fake MetaMask websites. Source: Cointelegraph

The supra screenshot shows the similarity betwixt the existent and fake MetaMask websites, which is 1 of the main reasons investors autumn for the scam. Linking MetaMask wallets connected specified websites gives scammers implicit power implicit the assets held connected those peculiar MetaMask wallets.

Related: Scam alert: MetaMask warns users of deceptive March 31 airdrop rumors

In April, MetaMask denied claims of an exploit that perchance drained implicit 5,000 Ether (ETH).

The wallet supplier said the 5,000 ETH was stolen “from assorted addresses crossed 11 blockchains,” reaffirming the assertion that funds were hacked from MetaMask “is incorrect.”

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Wallet Guard co-founder Ohm Shah said the MetaMask squad has been “researching tirelessly,” and determination is “no coagulated reply to however this has happened.”

Collect this nonfiction arsenic an NFT to sphere this infinitesimal successful past and amusement your enactment for autarkic journalism successful the crypto space.

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