- Phishing scams are on the rise in the TON ecosystem.
- Scammers appear to be taking advantage of Telegram’s “free” ecosystem.
- Due diligence is required to avoid falling victim to this type of fraud.
2024 will be the year when TON (The Open Network), a Telegram affiliate, is born. With the growing popularity of the clicker app built into Telegram as a mini app, the network’s native token has entered the top 10 crypto assets by market capitalization, comfortably taking the 8th spot ahead of Dogecoin.
Amid the recent growth of the network, it appears that malicious actors are using the hype to drive phishing scams. In this article Daily Coin Learn more about how these scammers operate and how you can stay safe.
How TON Ecosystem Fraudsters Work According to SlowMist
Phishing scams are on the rise in the TON ecosystem. Yu “Cos” Xian, founder of popular cryptocurrency security firm SlowMist, issued this warning in an X post on Monday, June 24th. According to Xian, scammers take advantage of Telegram’s “free” nature to spread phishing attacks and drain users’ wallets.
“The Telegram ecosystem is too free and many phishing links (or bot forms) are spread through message groups, airdrops and other fraudulent methods,” reads the X post, translated by the SlowMist founder.
While all TON ecosystem users are at risk from the ongoing phishing scam scourge, SlowMist’s Xian points out that Telegram accounts created with the platform’s “anonymous number” feature appear to be the main targets. The anonymous number feature allows you to create a temporary number for a short period of time, usually for privacy and security reasons, to keep certain discussions separate from your main account.
According to Xian, if you don’t use two-factor authentication, fraudsters can compromise this temporary account to take control of your primary Telegram account.
How to Stay Safe from TON Ecosystem Phishing Scams
Due diligence is required to avoid falling victim to this type of fraud. As SlowMist’s Xian highlights, phishing scams targeting TON ecosystem users use similar methods to all other phishing scams.
To get users to reveal personal information or grant malicious wallet permissions, scammers typically create a false sense of urgency using messages that stoke greed and fear, whether by promising airdrops or performance bots farming airdrops. There are a lot. Here are some tips to help you stay safe:
- Use Telegram’s privacy and security features to prevent scammers from adding you to unwanted channels. Premium account users can also use these settings to prevent unwanted direct messages.
- Take a moment to think and research before clicking on links and attachments, especially if they come from unknown users.
- Be careful about linking your wallet to new or unknown projects. If necessary, it is often safer to use a newly created empty wallet.
- Be wary of requests for information that should remain private, such as your wallet seed phrase.
On the flip side
- Phishing scams are chain agnostic.
- TON’s recent rise appears to have been unaffected by the surge in phishing scams. This can be seen in the network’s recent performance, with its market capitalization surpassing DOGE.
Why This Matters
TON has millions of daily users and is one of the fastest growing networks in the cryptocurrency industry. With the recent surge in phishing scams, users are at risk of losing their hard-earned assets.
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