EOS Scam Alert: Fake Airdrop Trick to Steal ETH Keys

The EOS project is seeing a blatant attempt to steal private keys using faked Twitter profiles.

Until recently, Ethereum (ETH) was ubiquitous for fake Twitter giveaways. But as a sign that EOS is becoming more important in the crypto ecosystem, a new scam is making the rounds on Twitter.

The scam uses faked Twitter handles, just like the Ethereum giveaways. A faked WhalePanda, with a different Twitter handle, led to the scam:

https://twitter.com/berniceal82c51q/status/1044940196721160192

The alleged airdrop uses an outright blatant approach, demanding the private keys to an Ethereum wallet. The demand is absurd, given that EOS tokens cannot be airdropped anymore to an Ethereum wallet - they are frozen, and a new EOS network has been running for months, with a totally different wallet and system of addresses.

The fake EOS airdrop offers 10 EOS for each Ethereum held in the wallet. Of course, the form promises never to use or store the private key, just use it to verify the wallet balance. This is also a dead giveaway - there is no way to know the private key in order to give away tokens, just the public key. In other words, any EOS airdrop promised is completely fake, and aims to empty the wallets of unsuspecting users.

While those scams cause minor losses, they are still a warning that anyone can at least attempt to exploit the crypto ecosystem. This Etherscan address has been flagged for being used in an earlier EOS scam that promised returns for revealing a private key.

And before the EOS mainnet launch, phishing emails made the same attempt to airdrop EOS coins. However, EOS was never distributed by airdrops, but by daily auctions.

The EOS asset has remained attractive for managing to keep a relatively stable price, and being well-distributed in the crypto economy. The real EOS asset traded around $5.63 as of 1:00 UTC on Thursday, slightly rising from weekly lows around $5.15.