Recently in a post on their blog, Shapeshift.io has warned users of various scams that are taking place on social media and attempt to lure users into depositing cryptocurrency on impostor sites such as “shapeshit.io” Shapeshift has released a detailed report to help users protect their funds and avoid falling victim to these attacks.
Also read: Local Apple App Store Pricing Changes Show Why Bitcoin is The Only Global Currency
Potential Shapeshift-based scams
Shapeshift.io has identified the following as the most common scam attempts on social media:
- Twitter accounts asking people to take surveys and then send a certain amount of bitcoin to be exchanged via twitter DMs
- Twitter account asking people to send a certain amount of bitcoin to be exchanged via twitter DMs Copy cat website that looks like ShapeShift.io but is spelled “ShapeShit.io” that provides you with a deposit address but does not do the exchange.
- Other copy cat websites that look different from the ShapeShift site but offer instant exchanges and provide you with a deposit address but does not do the exchange
Shapeshift further clarified that they would never ask users to send cryptocurrency to an address through social media and also identified all of their authentic social media channels so that users can watch out for fake accounts claiming to be the company. Because their platform is completely open source, people are able to create impostor websites using the same API which will allow for deposits but won’t complete the exchange, this results in a loss of user funds.
Shapeshift users are encouraged to always check the URL before depositing funds and always check that the HTPPS protocol is correct on the URL bar. Another telling sign of a fake site is an unusually high deposit limit. At this time, limits above 100 BTC do not currently exist on Shapeshift. Users can report impostor and scamming sites and Shapeshift will work to remove them.
In closing, be very careful as these scams are becoming more common. Take precautions to ensure that you are using the legitimate Shapeshift to avoid theft and falling victim to a scam. You can read Shapeshift’s blog post right here.
Have you seen any potential Shapeshift-based scams? Let us know in the comments below!
Images via Shapeshift and Pixabay.
