Facebook imposters are trying to swindle users out of bitcoin

[PRIBO247]

Earlier this month, some Facebook users noticed
something odd: bitcoin mining company Bitmain
seemed to be posting in the comments of one of its
posts, advertising some sort of “partnership” tied to
bitcoin and requesting a cryptocurrency transfer. The
post was suspicious; some wondered whether the
company had been hacked.
But the post wasn’t from Bitmain at all, the company
explained in a follow-up comment on Facebook.
Instead, a savvy imposter had set up a fake account,
then commented on a legitimate thread from the
company, attempting to draw users into sending
bitcoin. “There are plenty of users creating fake
accounts with our profile picture and inputting the
same name as Bitmain,” the company wrote in a
Facebook comment. “We always have these taken
down but new ones always come out.” Users with
pages like Bitmain’s rely on flagging content to
Facebook and then waiting for the company to take it
down. It’s not clear in this case how long the posts
were visible. (Bitmain declined to comment.)
The scheme has hit others on Facebook, too. This
week, an account imitating The Verge was making the
same pitch in Facebook comments. “We are excited to
be partnering with Bitcoin,” read the comment, which
used similar language to the Bitmain proposal. The
comment claimed to be offering a giveaway in
exchange for providing a small sum of bitcoin to “verify
your address.”

The Facebook comments are an example of a scheme
that’s so far largely gained prominence on Twitter.
Most famously, on that platform, users imitating Elon
Musk have joined threads from the Tesla CEO as a way
to lure users into similar traps. That ploy turned
especially sophisticated recently, as scammers
hijacked legitimate accounts that were verified by
Twitter and then used them as vehicles to solicit.

The scheme is enormously simple, although it’s hard to
say how effective it is. At a glance, it’s not always easy
to immediately suss out whether a comment is coming
from the account it’s purporting to be. Then again, if a
user is technically sophisticated enough to set up a
bitcoin wallet, will they still fall for a fairly rudimentary
scam?
Many scammers, at least, seem to be betting that the
answer is yes. While it’s easy to find the Twitter
accounts making those posts, more limited search
functions make it difficult to find out who may be
posting fraudulent comments on Facebook, and it’s not
clear exactly how widespread the issue is. But the
company is hardly immune to imposter accounts.
Earlier this year, The New York Times highlighted how
scammers posed as Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl
Sandberg on Facebook to swindle users out of money.

In response to the Times’ investigation, a Facebook
spokesperson said the platform was trying “to get
better” at tackling the problem. While the company
appears to remove posts when they’re flagged, it’s not
clear exactly what safeguards Facebook has in place to
detect fraudulent accounts or whether the company
gives any additional scrutiny to verified pages.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Bitcoin, which has become a favored currency in online
scams, has also presented other problems for
Facebook. The company said earlier this year that it
would no longer allow cryptocurrency ads on its
platform, as too many were not “operating in good
faith.” Facebook largely reversed that ban later, but the
company has still faced criticism over its handling of
the problem. Last month, some observers noticed that
sponsored posts on Facebook were being used to
obtain sensitive information by promoting a
cryptocurrency that didn’t exist.
“Bitmain would like to remind everyone to be cautious
due to the numerous fake accounts that are trying to
SCAM online users,” the company wrote on its
Facebook page yesterday, posting an infographic about
how to identify fraudulent accounts. “Kindly take some
time to go over the information in order to avoid
scams.”

https://www.theverge.com/