Revealing the TON fake virtual account scam: the phishing teams various scams

Original | Odaily Planet Daily

Author | How to

Recently, the TON ecosystem has been developing rapidly, with the ecosystem TVL increasing by more than 70% this month to $260 million. However, the rapid development of TON has also attracted the attention of phishing groups. Previously, community members disclosed that they had an extra pretty number (888 0505 0707) NFT in their TON wallets, but when many community members transferred it, they found that the transfer fee of the NFT was as high as 1 Toncoin (normally 0.02 Toncoin), and after the transfer, the NFT would appear in your wallet again.

Currently, the TON ecosystem is flooded with many confusing projects. For this reason, Odaily Planet Daily will review the development of virtual numbers themselves and the risks of this type of scam.

The fishing team has upgraded its gameplay, taking advantage of low costs and the mentality of taking advantage

The +888 series of virtual numbers were sold by Telegram on the Fragment platform in 2022. The decentralized auction platform Fragment is an important witness to the ice-breaking between Telegram and TON.

Initially, the +888 series of virtual number NFTs were sold directly through Telegram at the price of 9 Toncoin. After they were all sold out, buyers could use them directly or resell them. The Telegram team originally wanted to provide users with privacy needs in Telegram by auctioning virtual numbers, thereby demonstrating Telegrams ability to resist censorship.

In addition, during the same period, the relationship between Telegram and TON eased, and it launched the Fragment auction platform based on TON, allowing virtual numbers to be auctioned in the form of NFTs.

At present, Telegram has only launched the +888 series of virtual numbers. The purchasing group, which should have been mainly motivated by privacy needs, has turned into a symbol of identity. This phenomenon is similar to the previous demand for beautiful mobile phone numbers in China, causing TON and Telegram users to auction for consistent and auspicious numbers.

Data from the Fragment platform shows that the virtual number with the highest auction price is + 888 0666 0000, with an auction price of 1365 Toncoin (about US$9350). The second highest auction price is the protagonist of this article (+ 888 0505 0707).

The phishing team first created a fake NFT impersonating a virtual number (+888 0505 0707) at zero cost and distributed it through nftTONificatorBot to active addresses on the TON chain. Users who frequently engage in on-chain activities may feel that the NFT has no value and is uncertain about its security, so skeptical users try to transfer the NFT.

However, users found that the fee for NFT transactions was as high as 1.02 Toncoin, and after completing the on-chain steps, the NFT remained intact in the wallet (isn’t this the same as wanting to uninstall 360 in the early years). Some users were determined to transfer the NFT, but after paying 1 Toncoin each time, the NFT remained in the wallet.

The above is a phishing team taking advantage of users’ suspicion of transferring NFTs to raise the transaction fee for NFTs to 1 Toncoin, and the NFT still remains in the wallet. As for how to set the smart contract to make NFTs unable to be transferred or to redirect fake NFTs to airdrop, no theoretical support has been found.

However, this novel phishing method can only deceive a small number of people, so the phishing team imitated the previous fake airdrop method on the X platform (formerly Twitter), opened a minting page, and let users participate in the production. This is different from the previous airdrop, opening wallet permissions, and allowing funds in the wallet to be stolen. This time the phishing team relies purely on users to send money themselves.

The author found in the receiving address of the phishing team that there are still users sending money to them, from transferring 1 Toncoin to the minting fee of 0.02 Toncoin. The phishing team is suspected to be collecting funds. According to tonscan data, 6483 Toncoins have been transferred to the address UQB1QBhyiY76wtIDTaV3pFtl8jE_aCrlGeDDTRbz2LaNjTvH in recent days, about 45,000 US dollars. This address is only one of the fund collection addresses. The specific amount of fraud may exceed 100,000 US dollars.

For this reason, Odaily Planet Daily would like to remind everyone that although the TON ecosystem is currently developing rapidly and the wealth returns are high, it is also a new battlefield for phishing teams to commit crimes. Community members have reported multiple fake airdrops and fake NFT links. We hope that everyone will strengthen their risk awareness.

This article is sourced from the internet: Revealing the TON fake virtual account scam: the phishing teams various scams

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