CZ receives fake ‘Grok’ coins amid new wave of Elon Musk scam tokens


Scammers are as soon as once more capitalizing on the recognition of Elon Musk’s synthetic intelligence chatbot Grok, with pretend tokens as soon as once more rising as a part of potential phishing assaults.

A pockets linked to former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao obtained 90 million pretend Grok (GROK) tokens on April 21, according to blockchain safety agency PeckShield.

The tokens are “doubtless a rip-off,” for the reason that “deployer distributed it to a number of addresses by way of multisend,” PeckShield mentioned.

01965880 f5aa 7427 8a47 43f89723b207
Supply: PeckShieldAlert

The X platform’s Grok AI chatbot has no official cryptocurrency and no plans to launch one sooner or later.

Associated: Bitcoin up 33% since 2024 halving as institutions disrupt cycle

Pretend tokens associated to the Grok token first emerged in 2023 when a scammer deployed an ERC-20 Grok token on Ethereum, which led to an over 90% drop after the deployer offered 0.5% of the full provide, in response to blockchain information visualization platform, Bubblemaps.

01965880 f9a4 7cb3 a8ec c10017cd9d6c
Pretend GROK ERFC-20 token crash, 2023. Supply: Bubblemaps 

Scammers typically capitalize on the credibility of social media platforms, massive manufacturers, or celebrities like Elon Musk to domesticate a way of belief with victims.

Meta was probably the most mimicked model in phishing experiences filed all through 2024, in response to a report by e mail safety supplier Mailsuite.

01965880 fe03 73e2 8e3b b5cdbe04da4e
US manufacturers are sometimes impersonated by scammers. Supply: Mailsuite

Coinbase was the most impersonated brand by scammers within the crypto business, however Meta was focused by over 25 instances as many scammers because the cryptocurrency alternate.

Associated: Bitcoin rally above $100K may follow US Treasury buybacks — Arthur Hayes

Elon Musk-related scams and faux cash see a resurgence

Elon Musk-related scams and faux tokens are seeing a resurgence as scammers proceed vying for buyers’ crypto holdings.

A pretend announcement claiming to be an official “AI Elon Musk stream” making a gift of $20,000 price of cryptocurrency was flagged on April 14 by crypto restoration and safety advocate, Denis Thomas.

01965881 01fe 7fde 83e9 3e9842a085fc
Supply: Denis Thomas 

A number of different Elon Musk-related memecoins have been launched on the BNB Sensible Chain in current weeks, in response to a rip-off detector platform, Coinspeedrun.

01965881 04c9 7fdc 8f81 1dafa3682fe9
Supply: Coinspeedrun

Phishing scams like address poisoning contain tricking victims into sending belongings to fraudulent pockets addresses.

Phishing scams cost the crypto business over $1 billion throughout 296 incidents in 2024, making them a significant risk, in response to blockchain safety agency CertiK.

Journal: Down to $200 one day, Pixels founder had $2.4M the next: Luke Barwikowski, X Hall of Flame