Yi He, co-founder of Binance, urged Elon Musk to tackle the pervasive issue of false cryptocurrency news spreading on X (formerly Twitter). Her call comes in response to falling victim to an impersonation scam where her identity was used to promote a fraudulent crypto token.
Taking to X, He denounced the promotion of a fictitious cryptocurrency falsely associated with her. "I have not authorized any tokens named MemeCoins," she clarified in her statement. She advised her followers and the wider Binance community to avoid falling prey to the scam and refrain from investing in this deceptive token.
Illustrating the seriousness of the situation, He shared screenshots revealing how scammers misused her name and crypto handle. "Many individuals were deceived by this hacker's link and suffered substantial financial losses today. Elon Musk, is there a way to address this issue?" she directly queried, tagging Musk, X's owner.
Despite Musk's usual responsiveness to such matters, he has not yet responded to this issue. This silence is noteworthy given Musk's prior commitments to improving X's security for crypto discussions.
In March, Scam Sniffer, a prominent security firm, reported significant financial losses due to crypto phishing scams. According to their findings, approximately 57,000 victims collectively lost around $47 million (approximately Rs 392 crore) to these scams, with a notable portion occurring through X.
When Musk acquired X from Jack Dorsey in April 2022, he emphasized his commitment to purging the platform of crypto-related scams and manipulative bots. However, despite implementing various changes, the persistence of these scams indicates more substantial efforts are needed.
The problem of crypto scams extends beyond X. Recently, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning about the rise of "Crypto Romance" scams. The FTC highlighted how scammers often establish emotional connections with victims, posing as cryptocurrency experts to exploit trust and perpetrate fraud.
"No one expects their online romantic interest to deceive them, but scammers are adept at what they do. They build emotional bonds to make you believe they're knowledgeable in cryptocurrency investments," the FTC stated in a blog post on June 10.
