Last updated on May 18th, 2024 at 11:56 am
As the excitement behind the Shibarium project continues to grow, the Shiba Inu community continues to experience growing targeted scams by perpetrators looking to take advantage of the trend.
The attention of the crypto community was drawn to scams targeted at Shiba Inu users on X (formerly Twitter) by an individual/entity impersonating Shytoshi Kusama – the lead developer of the Shiba Inu ecosystem.
The scam promotes a dubious link, urging users to bridge over to Shibarium to redeem rewards, and informing them that the Shibarium scaling is complete.
This is a scam!@susbarium !!!
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Authentic @ShytoshiKusama has a SHIB label. pic.twitter.com/sJkjeRgPPX
— 動物なんて・・・・大好きだ™ | Summer of Shibarium (@doubutunante) August 19, 2023
Related Reading: Over 1 Billion Shiba Inu Burned, Increases Burn Rate by Over 1000%
The purpose of the scam campaign is to exploit the Shiba Inu community’s enthusiasm for the recently launched blockchain network. Shibarium was unsuccessfully launched on August 16 during the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto, Canada.
Shortly after the launch, the network experienced technical difficulties which resulted in circulating rumors about issues with the bridge. The issues were caused by overwhelming user demand post-launch. Shibarium was forced into a fail-safe mode following this to keep users’ funds safe.
Four days later, on August 20, Shytoshi Kusama updated the community via a blog post revealing that the layer 2 blockchain solution is now “live (but in private mode) producing blocks as normal.”
Consequently, scammers have been taking advantage of this update to scam unsuspecting Shiba Inu community members, updating them about a false completion of the scaling process in order to lure and get hold of their SHIB and other tokens related to the Shibarium network including BONE and LEASH.
Identify the real Shytoshi Kusama account
To help identify the original X account of Shytoshi Kusama, it is important to note that the real @ShytoshiKusama account on X has a Shiba Inu label next to the blue verification tick.
shytoshi kusama profile on X
Also, the original account provides official updates about the project and only directs users to the official Shiba Inu website as well as other verified and prominent crypto media websites.
It is imperative that the crypto community carry out extensive checks and exercise caution before sharing personal information or making any transfers relating to promoted campaigns.
Victor Swaezy
Victor Swaezy is a crypto-journalist with more than 3 years of experience in covering blockchain technology and digital currencies news. Known for his comprehensive reporting, Victor has contributed to leading industry publications such as Coinfomania and Crypto News Guru, providing market participants with the required knowledge to make informed decisions. When he is not working, he loves to watch movies and have a good time.