When Elon Musk took over Twitter, he initiated several changes. First, he fired several employees to reduce operating costs and promote efficiency. Second, he revamped the business, took out the legacy checkmarks, and offered a similar badge in exchange for a subscription fee. And of course, we all know that Twitter is now called X. But of all the changes, the paid checkmark is probably the favorite among scammers. It is now being abused by crypto bad actors as pointed out by crypto sleuth ZachXBT.
In ZachXBT’s post, he said that phishing scams from verified organizations are getting out of control and the platform is making it hard to report and take them down.
How do Scammers take Advantage of the X’s Checkmark?
First, we need to understand the different types of verified X/Twitter accounts
- Blue checkmark. A blue checkmark means that the account has an active subscription to X premium and meets eligibility requirements. Users need to pay $8/month for X premium.
- Gold checkmark and square profile picture. According to X, “The gold checkmark indicates that the account is an official organization account through Verified Organizations. Gold checkmarks cost $1000/month.
- Grey checkmark. According to X, the grey checkmark is for accounts that represent a government/multilateral organization or its officials.
Having a checkmark is supposed to protect other users from scammers and bots. Elon envisioned it to be a way to distinguish between real and fake accounts. However, it might have given bad actors another tool.
A thousand dollars is nothing to big organizations as long as they reach their target audience. Unfortunately, it is also a small amount for scammers who can easily make a six-digit payday from victims. They can pretend to be a legitimate crypto project and rug-pull investors once they have enough loot. Malicious airdrops can also be promoted by verified accounts with blue or gold checkmarks. Clueless users can be tricked into accepting smart contracts that can drain their wallets.
These scammers are emboldened since it is hard to know their real identities. They can easily create several crypto wallets without KYC and use mixers or privacy coins to hide their tracks.
What Can We Do to Protect Our Crypto and X Accounts?
We can hope and pray that Twitter/X implements a stricter screening process before giving a blue or gold checkmark. However, we cannot rely on others to protect our assets. We need to be more vigilant when using the X platform.
If something is too good to be true, then it is probably best to stay away. Be careful when accepting smart contracts, since a rouge one can steal crypto assets. Double-check links even if the account promoting it has a gold or blue checkmark. If a verified account approaches you, be on guard. A verified checkmark does not guarantee that a person will not defraud you. When in doubt, search the net for clues.
Social media is a wonderful tool to reach out to a broad range of audiences. However, bad actors are also utilizing it to promote harmful activities. So always be careful.
And don’t’ forget to follow us @cryptonewsbytes, for the latest crypto news.
