Phishing Scam Attacks Token Owners, Targets Basic Attention (BAT)

[Leonardo]

A variation of a phishing scam has targeted the owners of Basic Attention (BAT) and Request Network (REQ). Reddit users noticed the scams were making the rounds on social media.

In the past, the phishing scams used the message that the user needed to check their Ethereum (ETH) balance. But with the proliferation of tokens, the message evolved, citing problems with the token’s smart contract.

In theory, tokens could be problematic, and a smart contract could have unpredictable behaviors. However, there is no need to share private keys with third parties. Token safety is a relatively unknown field, with smart contract exploits affecting users for several types of tokens. In the past months, security glitches have affected Bancor (BNT), KickCoin (KICK), Oyster Protocol (PRL) and others.

But BAT has not revealed any problems with its smart contract. The token is held in 77,998 addresses and has not seen any attacks or smart contract problems so far. BAT is also one of the ERC-20 assets listed on Coinbase, and boasts broad ownership due to the usage in the Brave browser, tokenizing web advertising and user attention.

Cryptocurrency scams continued in many forms in 2018, although deepening losses in November and December cleared some of the attempts to get funds, including promises of Ethereum (ETH) giveaways. But crypto assets remain popular, and phishing for private keys has been one of the easiest attempts to acquire tokens.

In 2018, hacks were also prevalent, combining encryption malware with hidden mining activity.

BAT traded around $0.14, up 9% in the past 24 hours. So far, Binance, Coinbase Pro and IDCM host the most active BAT pairs. The token is also trading against USDC, a recently-added stablecoin pegged to the dollar, which allows for direct speculation in fiat-like positions.

Source: https://cryptovest.com/news/phishing-scam-attacks-token-owners-targets-basic-attention-bat/