I love Elon Musk and his X, freedom of speech and many more. I have high respect for Tesla and his Elon’s views. I like space exploration but do not want to go to Mars yet. : ) I want X to succeed but we users are feeling worthless even with verified accounts when things are out of control.
This time my frustration is speaking out, not just me but from 1000’s of crypto users who got scammed and compromised and still getting compromised. No action from Twitter support yet. So how does this work ?
Let’s dig into the story of what happened.
Its a long but possibly worth the read for Twitter Customer Support and Crypto Folks so that they dont fall into the same trap.
It was a beautiful Friday evening. After finishing my work, I was scrolling my twitter feeds to see what is going on in the crypto space on CT. Lot of unrelated crypto tweets from various accounts I do not follow shows up on my feeds (past couple of months )but I still manage to find the needle in the haystack. ( I have a verified account). During my routine scroll, something caught my eye from one of my closely followed Twitter accounts.
I’ve been a longstanding member of the trading and influencer community led by IncomeSharks. Back in 2021, I joined one of his Discord groups as a VIP member, enjoying exclusive benefits for over a year until membership plans were revised. Unfortunately, I missed the lifetime membership window, an opportunity that many, including myself, regretted. It’s fascinating to observe how influencers generate revenue through memberships, providing valuable research or signals to their dedicated audience
After being a part of IncomeSharks’ premium group, I noticed the value he brought, particularly with his signals for US stocks and major cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH. While he demonstrated a genuine approach with most of his signals, I observed that his strengths lie more in traditional stocks rather than micro caps.
Despite missing the opportunity to rejoin his premium group, I reached out to him on Twitter, where we had some interactions. However, the engagement eventually tapered off, possibly due to the influx of inquiries. With thousands of members in his Discord, he has established himself as a significant Crypto Analyst/Influencer, with his signals swiftly impacting token values significantly. Despite my positive experience with IncomeSharks, especially in his signals for US stocks and BTC, I observed that his stock signals were more reliable than those for crypto, at least in my opinion.
The compromised account that Twitter didn’t take any action. Please do not click nor interaction witht his account.
The Plot of the Scammer
Back to the story from Friday evening.
I saw the post from IncomeShark’s Twitter account announcing the opening of new slots for memberships, which was exciting news for me as I wanted to join his crypto Discord Premium account. To continue our previous discussions, I reached out to him directly on Twitter. It seemed like he was the one responding, maintaining a professional tone regarding the membership, much like he did in the past.
After a few regular conversations, he acknowledged our established trust on Twitter and suggested continuing the discussion on Discord. Since I was already a member of his free Discord, I was confident it was him. He mentioned that the membership fee would be $500 (compared to the $1000 for a lifetime membership), and I sought clarification if it was $300 or $500. I agreed to pay in BTC, and he provided the BTC address in a private chat. The basis of my trust in this discussion was our prior communication on Twitter. There was no way I would have trusted this guy otherwise.
After I sent $500 to IncomeSharks, he observed the transaction on the blockchain explorer. Seeing this, he realized that the membership transaction was successful.
Second Plot of the Scammer
Following this, he took the next steps, he provided access to a new private channel and instructed me to authenticate using Dyno. He assured me that once the authentication process was complete, I would have access to the private Discord channels.
Thinking that this might be a new membership procedure, I proceeded to follow the instructions. However, the process did not work as expected, so I contacted the moderator for assistance.
At this point, an scammer intervened, asking me to provide a seed phrase via private chat. The impersonator claimed that providing the seed phrase was necessary for the authentication process and suggested using the seed phrase from the most frequently used account.
This is where I began to question the authenticity of the message, unsure of what was happening. I returned to Twitter and asked IncomeShark directly in our chat if he was the same person communicating with me on Discord.
He said yes and pointed me to Discord saying mods will take care if it and I need to folllow few authentication steps. I started poking the impersonator asking questions.
It was at this point that he told me, as it had been past 15 minutes, I needed to send an additional 500 and provide the most used seed phrase immediately. My instincts told me this was a scam. Even the ethics of IncomeShark came into question at this point. The fact that the Twitter chat and Discord chat were seemingly from the same person confused me. Yet, my suspicions grew, and I sensed that something was not right. To test the situation, I created a new Metamask wallet and sent a new seed phrase to see how he would react via Dyno. He immediately realized it was a wallet with no funds and continued to insist that I send the most used wallet’s seed phrase again and again.
After waiting for two hours and realizing that he wasn’t getting the seed phrase, he kicked me out of the free IncomeShark’s Discord. I knew I lost the money to a scammer
Aftermath on Confused Investigative Mind & IncomeShark Being Helpless
I started to look into all the tweets since Jan 31st, and I found some of them funny. The response styles were not the same as they used to be. I tried to follow the tweet trail, and I came across IncomeShark’s alternate account with 3k followers, where he is screaming about his Twitter & Discord account being compromised and Twitter support (X) doing nothing about it.
He is helpless as he sees his empire being taken down by a SIM attack. He is frustrated due to Twitter’s unresponsiveness to this situation.
I followed the wallet of the impersonator, and I lost hope of my money. I even saw one more tweet with a link that, upon clicking, would drain crypto wallets. He had close to half a million followers on Twitter, so I am sure thousands of people lost money by clicking on their favorite trusted influencer’s links and got busted.
How much the Scammer Earned
It may be hard to know how much scammer earned in this case because they have used phishing urls to drain wallets, impersonation and compromises such as the one I feel for.
Based on the BTC address provided by the scammer, this one single wallet collected $32,940 from a total of 23 transactions. Most of the transactions appears to have been close to membership fees value or equivalent.
https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/bc1qxtc0svedxqpt2yz9uhpstgnemtmyq5n5aynlgz
Twitter ( X) Unresponsive Support:
If Twitter had prioritized verified members, they should have taken immediate action when hundreds of users reported the account as fraudulent.
Twitter’s lack of responsiveness for more than five days has contributed to a broken support system, allowing bad actors to exploit the situation. This irresponsibility has led to financial losses for many, myself included.
As of now, Incomeshark has lost control of his Twitter and Discord accounts, and scammers continue to exploit the situation. It’s crucial for Twitter and Discord to take swift action to prevent further scams and protect users.
Indeed, combating fraud requires a multi-faceted approach, and a system that prioritizes verified accounts or provides additional assistance to premium members could be a step in the right direction. Ensuring user safety and protecting against scams should be a top priority for social media platforms.
I even reported the account dozen times but there is absolutely no action from twitter support.
The current ongoing incident with Incomeshark highlights the need for swift and effective measures to prevent such scams and protect users from financial losses. The scammer still has possession of the account even after 5 days and support hasnt done anything yet.
Hope this story helps users in some ways so that they do not fall trap to these scammers.
The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. The article does not offer sufficient information to make investment decisions, nor does it constitute an offer, recommendation, or solicitation to buy or sell any financial instrument. The content is opinion of the author and does not reflect any view or suggestion or any kind of advise from CryptoNewsBytes.com. The author declares he does not hold any of the above mentioned tokens or received any incentive from any company.
