Vitalik Buterin Impersonators Step Up ETH Phishing Ahead of The Merge

Cointelegraph has identified more than six Twitter accounts with a "verified" mark that replicates the profile picture, name, and profile description of Buterin.

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The hype surrounding The Merge has attracted a swarm of scammers who are actively using verified Twitter accounts to impersonate Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and mislead investors.

Prominent entrepreneurs, including one of the world's richest men, Elon Musk, have repeatedly pointed to Twitter's biggest problem: bots. However, the scammers have obviously increased their efforts to hide their bad intentions by using verified profiles.

Fake and verified Vitalik Buterin impersonators performing phishing attacks. Source: Twitter

Cointelegraph has identified over six verified Twitter accounts that currently feature Buterin's profile photo, name and description. The accounts actively promoted fake Ether (ETH) giveaways and tricked investors into gaining access to their crypto wallets.

The easiest way to identify counterfeits is to pay attention to the Twitter handle, also known as the profile username. Recently, fake Twitter profiles impersonating Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao have increased, forcing Musk to publicly speak out about the issue, as shown below.

And 90% of my comments are bots pic.twitter.com/A7RKyNJZoR

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 5, 2022

From time to time, scammers have also impersonated the Ethereum Foundation, trying to gain credibility with the masses. Especially during bull runs and big events like network upgrades, bad actors find it easy to dupe investors who are usually unaware of scams amid the hype.

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