Who to trust? The battle between wolves and gazelles has begun, and the rising tide of scammers seems to be always one step ahead. Hardly any signs of a bull market and the scammers are waking up like the walking dead looking for fresh meat.
With Bitcoin surpassing $50K this weekend and $52K today, the scams are swarming in a risky, but very lucrative endeavor. Scammers, like economic cycles, follow a predictable pattern of ups and downs, they come and go, with the aggravating factor that they evolve and refine their strategies to fool victims. They are no longer limited to phishing or impersonation; now, like the chameleon, they camouflage themselves as legitimate and infiltrate seemingly safe and trusted sites, such as Apple's App Store, for example.
Although it may seem unlikely, given Apple's strict approval and verification processes, cases like the one involving a scam app in the App Store can happen. In fact, it has already happened. Just this afternoon, through a post on X, Curve Finance alerted its users about a fake app on Apple's App Store that using its name and logo seeks to deceive users of the DeFi platform into believing it is legitimate and secure.
Beware of scams. There is no DeFi "Curve App" on @Apple App Store, but a fake with our logo was spotted! Stay safe pic.twitter.com/7LJYyLLgco
— Curve Finance (@CurveFinance) February 14, 2024
Following this alert, it is not surprising that in the coming days, the victims of these new scams will come to light, who, confident in the legitimacy of the application, downloaded it, entrusted their credentials, authorized transactions, and will surely not take long to regret the loss of their funds or digital assets. It would be rash to judge these users a priori; if they cheated and circumvented Apple's controls, how could they not be cheated?
So who can we trust, how vulnerable are we in this digital world? Unfortunately, in the world of Web3 and cryptocurrencies, there are no superheroes to protect us; we rely on ourselves. We are our only superheroes, in a fight of wolves versus gazelles, or David versus Goliath, depending on where we stand in any given circumstance.
Decentralization and freedom come at a high price. For those of us who have been in the industry for a long time, each new episode of this kind makes our skin crawl; for those who are not yet convinced and are afraid of risky times, it scares them even more. So, in addition to governments, banks, and many other naysayers, we now face the inherent risks of the digital world. An intricate path, with new barriers to overcome, but also new experiences and opportunities to strengthen our permanence.