Scammers have created hundreds of fake Arbitrum airdrops and phishing websites to steal funds from unsuspecting users.
The Arbitrum community has warned users about different fake airdrops pretending to be from the project’s newly launched decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).
Scammers started creating fake Arbitrum airdrops and phishing websites after the Ethereum layer-2 scaling protocol announced the DAO last week while promising to distribute 12.57% of the governance token ARB to eligible community members on March 23, 2023.
In the statement, the protocol said it used a point system to determine users eligible to claim the airdrop and the number of tokens each can receive based on their performance and activities on the platform.
Fake Airdrops Impersonating ARB Tokens
With hundreds of fake Arbitrum airdrops and scams going around, the project’s community and some blockchain security companies cautioned users who want to make free money to be vigilant and careful of such fraudulent websites claiming to share airdrops.
In a Twitter post on March 19, Arbitrum News DAO said it identified over 273 phishing sites related to Arbitrum since the Ethereum layer-2 protocol announced the airdrop distribution. According to the tweet, the number is expected to increase before the official distribution date on Thursday.
Similarly, crypto security startup Redefine discovered a fake website impersonating Arbitrum’s airdrop website. According to the screenshots shared by the firm, the phishing site asks users for authorization to access their wallets, allowing the criminals to drain victims’ accounts.
Blockchain security firm CertiK also identified a fake Twitter account named @arbitrum_launch, which is currently promoting a token airdrop. The company then cautioned users to stay off the account and not interact with the airdrop.
Free Money
A Reddit user named CryptoMaximalist also posted a thread on the social platform warning that “scammers are hoping to capitalize on the complexity of crypto, and users are excited for free money.”
The Redditor said he found Twitter profiles claiming to be “Arbitrum” with links to fake websites asking users to claim the airdrop.
CryptoMaximalist warned other Redditors to always check a user’s profile history and also other subreddits to uncover whether they are spamming links across the platform.
With the number of scams and fake Arbitrum expected to increase, crypto users should be cautious so that they don’t lose their funds to scammers like other fake crypto airdrops that siphoned thousands of dollars from victims in the past.