I thought it’s about time that I put out a friendly reminder of the safe practices you should observe whenever you are dealing with anything in the wild west of crypto currency.
So today I’m focusing on phishing attacks and how you can do your best to avoid them:
The schemers these days are smart, and they know how to get your attention.
They know you value your crypto and they know this can often times blind people to what they should be paying attention to.
So, if for example, you choose to use google as a means to find websites of crypto gateways, this could be for exchanges or the specific coin’s website...
Always triple check that the domain name is spelled correctly.
Myetherwallet has been used as a target for phishing attempts many times because of all of the increased traffic of people using it to participate in the ICOs that are taking place with the Ethereum Network.
So, very conveniently, if you google myetherwallet, you may very well be given a fake “myetherwallet” website listed as the top choice.
It may be spelled with two ‘v’s’ for wallet, or other subtle misspellings that are easily overlooked if you aren’t careful.
They also do a fantastic job of replicating the real website, so the hint is in the domain name.
The same can be said for any other high volume website that a scammer would like to take advantage of.
If you know how to type in the real website, it’s a lot safer and smarter to do so.
FYI: The official website for MyEtherWallet is "www.myetherwallet.com"
These same scammers are also known for making accounts in different slack channels.
They will have an official sounding account name and they will send you a private message warning you of some sort of major change that’s happened and you need to update your information, or move your coins, or anything else they can think of that will scare you into doing something stupid clicking on the link that they give you and giving out your private information or sending your coins directly to them.
If you ever find yourself in this situation, address the issue in one of the public forums and ask if it is a legitimate claim.
They have tried to get me a couple times, but luckily I recognized it for what it was before I made any moves.
It’s also worth noting that if you have two-factor authentication set up for your accounts, it is far less likely that they would be able to cash in on your mistake.
If you think you have been a victim of a phishing attempt here are the recommended steps to take:
- Report this to google, if you click on a link that was provided to you by using their search engine.
- Report this to the admins of the slack channel if you were contacted by the malicious account on a slack channel.
- Report this to myetherwallet, or which ever official site that was imitated by the scam.
The information you should provide includes:
- Url used by the scam
- The Public ethereum (or whichever crypto that was stolen) address, transaction hashes
- How you got the malicious link- (Google search, slack channel, Reddit)
- Screenshots of the message sent by the scammer
- Screenshots of the transactions that the scammer took funds from your account
- The links to these transactions from etherscan.io
If you were a victim of a fake myetherwallet link, email this information to support@myetherwallet.com
You can also help take steps to remove this website scam by following the directions provided in the link I’ve put down in the description of this video.
Hopefully you have successfully avoided these scams and continue to do so in the future, if you found this video to be helpful please give it a like and share this with others so they can also avoid being a victim of a scam. If you’re new to this account, don’t forget to follow me to get your weekly fix of all things crypto!
Additional Reading/Sources:
What to Do If You Clicked on the Fateful Link
How to Help get Malicious Websites Taken Down
A good reminder from the MyEtherWallet Twitter account