- Fraudsters have joined all cryptocurrency exchange sites and platforms, undermining trading activities
- The high increase in the number of traders in cryptocurrency has led to an increase in fraudsters.
- In a bid to fight such, Kraken, a crypto exchange, has launched fake crypto accounts to bait fraudsters
Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange based in the United States, has introduced a novel way for reporting suspicious wallets. They are doing it by creating a phoney crypto account on the exchange to “scam bait” undesirable actors.
Kitboga, a prominent streamer whose content focuses on aggravating scammers, revealed this on May 10. He said Kraken had constructed him a “custom environment” that he used to frustrate a scammer imitating President Joe Biden. Kitbot had already encountered the fraudster around a year ago.
Kitboga can be seen in the attached video clip with around $450,000 in Bitcoin on his Kraken-created bogus crypto account.
READ: Is the third largest cryptocurrency exchange, Kraken, facing bankruptcy?
HUGE update on the "Crow Pro Joe" Saga.@krakenfx built a custom environment for me to fight against scammers… so Joe thought I had $455K.
We might have made him angry 😅#krakenpartner pic.twitter.com/Dc7MqvOtbu— Kitboga (@Kitboga) May 9, 2023
The scammer then sees the monies via video remote computer screen-sharing software. Then, he allegedly fooled Kitboga’s character into downloading and becomes overjoyed at the prospect of a large payoff.
The punchline comes when Kitboga, who plays an old woman in the film, enters the scammer’s wallet address wrong. This is before passing over all of the cash. As a result, the scammer becomes enraged and begins cursing Kitboga with a shower of expletives.
Notably, the scammer appears to have provided a Kraken-hosted BTC wallet address. Moreover, this allows the cryptocurrency exchange to identify and flag its activities.
All of this appears to be the result of a partnership between Kitboga and Kraken’s top security officer, Nick Percoco.
ALSO READ: Kraken crypto exchange fined US$30 million for violating crypto regulations
Kitboga has 1.2 million Twitch followers and 3 million YouTube subscribers. His content mainly focuses on amusingly wasting the time of contact centre scammers by portraying a variety of non-tech-savvy people.
Furthermore in some cases, he has also been successful in having their dubious websites removed. He did this by reporting the fraud to the hosting firms where the websites are housed.
“Every day, scammers take advantage of individuals. “I call them to waste their time, walk people through their script and lies, report information when I can, and otherwise make light of a dark situation,” he says on his YouTube page.
In a video posted on May 1, Kitboga reported a new BTC-related “social security scam” that targets victims via email or text message, alleging that someone had made strange purchases using their bank accounts.
The scammers claim that the victims’ identities have been stolen when they phone the numbers supplied and instruct them to withdraw all of their cash, purchase Bitcoin, and transfer the monies to a “secure government wallet.”
Kitboga clearly had a good time with these con artists by pretending to be their “grandson” and convincing him to buy 10,000 BTC and send it to the wrong address.
