Targeting followers of former President Donald Trump, a flood of crypto scammers is using their allegiance and confidence in light of Trump’s recent embrace of cryptocurrencies and the acceptance of bitcoin donations by his campaigning. Since Trump’s federal conviction resulted in a notable rise in donations to his campaign, these dishonest actions have been especially common.
London-based cybersecurity company Netcraft, which specializes in crypto security, is closely observing these frauds. The company found a variety of bogus contribution programs meant to fool Trump fans. These programs sometimes call for misspelled website domains and clever phishing and smishing methods.
Scammers have been registering web domains with misspellings to fool followers into donating to phony crypto sites. Domains including “donalbjtrump[.]com” and “doonaldjtrump[.]com” were registered soon after Trump’s campaign launch. These websites have small type errors, such as an additional “o” or replacing a “b” with a “d” in the name Donald.
Crypto Scammers Exploit Trump, Target Supporters
These phony websites have crypto donation centers, drawing naive followers into cash donations. Netcraft claims that scammers change fast with the times. For example, fraudsters changed their websites to fit the “Never Surrender” storyline of the Trump campaign when the guilty decision was declared on May 31st, taking advantage of the urgency felt by Trump’s followers.
“With the Trump campaign collecting more than $50 million in 24 hours, there’s no telling how much might have been attracted away by the criminals behind these scams,” said Netcraft on its website.
Sophisticated methods are used by scammers to replicate approved cryptocurrency payment systems. The Trump campaign makes bitcoin donations using Coinbase, a mechanism that con artists have faithfully copied. Phishing pages were developed to pass for Coingate, a payment processor; flows through Plisio and Oxapay were also replicated.
Some con artists also target conventional payment methods. Many times, users choosing non-crypto payment methods are sent to the official Trump campaign website, enhancing credibility.
Because of its popularity, Trump’s campaign is a prominent target for scammers, who use a lot of emails and SMS messages to fool possible donors into accessing bogus websites. Through interactions with a fraudster posing as the “Trump National Committee,” Netcraft unearthed important knowledge on the operations of the criminals, including email addresses, payment app data, and bank accounts used in money laundering.
These exchanges exposed the sophisticated methods used by the scammers, including artificial intelligence, which creates more complex and persuasive frauds. This development makes it harder for supporters to distinguish real from bogus donation requests.
Trump supporters and the general public must be careful when making online donations, as these frauds are exploding. Confirming the validity of websites and donation requests will help one avoid becoming a victim of these dishonest tactics. While public knowledge and alertness remain fundamental defenses against such fraud, Netcraft and other cybersecurity companies are working hard to monitor and counteract these frauds.
The flood of crypto frauds aimed at Trump supporters highlights the developing complexity of cybercrime in the DeFi scene. Trump’s campaign embraces cryptocurrencies, so his followers must be alert and informed to guard against these bogus scams.
