Kraken security chief warns of fraudulent crypto listings

Kraken is warning the crypto community against a new type of fraud.

The crooks thus pass themselves off as the exchange in order to target crypto projects about an alleged listing on their platform.

Malicious individuals use LinkedIn and Telegram to achieve their ends

These days, it’s not easy being a blockchain startup. The regulatory landscape is blurry to say the least, and worst of all, scammers are targeting you. Currently, it is precisely against this that the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is warning the community.

Kraken Security Chief Nicholas Percoco announced in a tweet that there is a “very active” scam that is currently targeting the crypto community. The bad guys have created a number of false identities and disguise themselves as „members of the ‚Kraken Listing Team,‘ he explained, adding that they are using Telegram and LinkedIn for their scam.

These are NOT Kraker employees, but actually fake accounts used by crooks.

Phishing scam

The phishing scam targeting Kraken is part of what is called “Punycode phishing”. Attackers thus use Unicode characters that mimic its well-known brand. In this case, Mr. Percoco says to pay attention to the letter “k” used in the e-mail system. Security chief Bitcoin Superstar points out that the company would never be the first to contact a project about a listing. He made it clear that the process begins with an email to the exchange from the project developers – not the exchange on social media.

After making contact, they will continue with an email. They will ask for this, if they don’t already have it with LinkedIn or Telegram.

Their email will be sent from a Punycode domain that looks more or less legitimate.

Note: these are not the “ks” you are looking for.

Phishing attacks on the rise in the crypto sector

Kraken is not the only exchange to be targeted by phishing attacks, far from it. Last month, the US Department of Justice announced that two Russian nationals, Danil Potekhin and Dmitrii Karasavidi, have been charged with defrauding three crypto exchange platforms and their clients over nearly $ 17 million. In addition, the US Department of the Treasury said it has taken sanctions against Russian nationals for prosecuting US victims in “malicious cyber activity”.