Australian crypto owners are being warned about a new fraud that is attempting to take away their funds.
MailGuard sounded the alert and said it had been blocking bogus emails supposedly sent by MetaMask, a digital currency wallet that has over 30 million users all over the world.
Aussies have been alerted to be on the lookout for an email with the subject line, “Your wallet will soon be suspended” and the sender name “Meta-Mask”.
The email utilizes MetaMask branding and tells the recipient to check their crypto wallet before it is deactivated the next day. The only thing that could raise alarm bells was the sender’s email address, MailGuard said, which seemed to be from a Japanese construction business.
By pressing the ‘verify your wallet’ button, users are taken to a website that is “nearly an identical copy of the MetaMask website”. The user is then taken to a page that demands them to enter their recovery phrase words.
“If the victim types in their phrase words and clicks the ‘Recover Wallet’ button, they are redirected to the legitimate MetaMask website, none-the-wiser. The scammer will then be able to access the victim’s wallet and will instantly transfer any crypto coins or tokens into their own account,” MailGuard said.
MetaMask said it would never email you about your account, and urged users to not click on any links or give out their recovery phrases.
Cryptocurrencies don’t have the same safeguards as regular banks and credit cards, MailGuard warned, so you may not be able to recover your lost funds if you were hacked.
Aussies lost more than $24 million to phishing scams last year – when scammers tried to deceive you into giving out your personal information.
One red flag is if a business or provider contacts you out of the blue and asks you to update or confirm your details.
Other warning signals include messages that don’t address you by name, or contain mistakes and website addresses that look unfamiliar, and request for your details.
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