A lot of cryptocurrency projects are using Slack as a medium of communication. Ethereum introduced the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) concept with its crowd sale. Raising funds before the project was finished in exchange for tokens.

As People got unexpected high returns on ICO, Most of the new investors are now try to invest on a coin As early as possible, because **Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) is going to the moon**

Now if you’re not deep into crypto, To give you context for why there is epic FOMO happening right now take a look at these returns.

What are the methods are they trying

• 1.Direct Message in Slack
  2. Remind task by using Slack Bot
  3. Scam ICO site with using False Advertising
  4. Duplicate/Clone Site.

Attack 1 — Direct Messages

Slack has a feature, that sends users an email to let them know they have unread direct messages and It’s is enabled by default.Naturally, scammers have started sending direct messages to users. This bypasses email scam filters since the email is coming from no-reply@slack.com as Slack is a reputed site

When an ICO happens the Coin Developer team is communicated through a variety of public channels. These announcements create a very convincing template for scammers to use.Like 5 to 100% bonus for attracting more users to get trapped.

But Here comes the advantage of Blockchain, We can know the exact amount got scammed.

Etherscan.io makes it easy to look up transactions on the blockchain to a particular address. Using the address in the scam we can see 90 transactions and a token balance of $439,492.70 USD

Attack 2 —Remind task by using Slack Bot

A scammer can set tasks for every user via slackbot. Once the scammer is detected and kicked out of the slack group there is no way to delete the tasks. As a result, slackbot sends the message even after the scammer is removed.

We can understand, In large and legit organizations, Work must be completed even after the member left. But an Open community like above is damn hard to clean the mess done by a scammer.

Attack 3 – Scam ICO site with using False Advertising

There are some users who will first doubt it because There is a lot of Fear Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) in the trading channels. So, It is obvious that they will search it on google. I heard about Red Pulse along with Kyber (an ICO that is so hot right now). So naturally, I was curious to know more. See What I found on Google

Now the Top Ad takes me to below site.

I will talk about this Site in Next Head

Attack 4 – Clone Site

I show you where that ad took me. Now See What is the actual ICO Site is

Also, send a variation of Slack DM Scam involves an alert from the security team about the hardfork and ask you to transfer all your coins to their address. Like I got mail alike

The effectiveness of this one is harder to measure since we don’t know the technical details of a wallet.

Dev Teams are dealing with this type of scam by kicking the scammers out of the slack group. This deletes all the direct messages from the scammer.

In The End

If you’re investing into crypto and using the communities, if it sounds too good to be true But probably it is a scam. So Always Look for official channels to verify everything.
Always be skeptical.
The official channels can get hacked. The Enigma ICO accounts got hacked resulting in nearly $500,000 being stolen.

Trust no one

Follow me if you want to learn more about crypto and how to invest safely.
*Hacks are pretty common in the crypto world:*

How to Avoid These Scams

1. Bookmark My Etherwallet LLC and always open from your bookmark, So You will easily know that others are scam
2. Google About the project but not click on the ads. Slack above message a quick google of the sender shows that the CTO of Golem Project isn’t called Pedro.
3. Don’t be hurry to Invest, Take your time to research or ask someone who knows better than you.

So please be aware and share this so others can see and be careful not to click on links received like that! This is not a joke and you can be hacked also by ALL your funds if you don’t pay attention

Add All other Address or link in the comment section So Others can get aware and give you Thanks.

Credit: Ben Longstaff