Kraken builds fake crypto accounts to “lure” fraudsters
US crypto exchange Kraken has provided a new method for flagging malicious wallets – building a fake crypto account on the exchange to “scam bait” bad actors.
On Twitter on May 10, popular streamer Kitboga — whose content revolves around annoying scammers — revealed that Kraken had built him a “custom environment” that he used to frustrate a scammer pretending to be President Joe Biden, with whom he had previously been together around a year ago.
In the accompanying video clip, Kitboga can be seen holding around $450,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) in his Kraken-built fake crypto account.
The scammer then sees the funds via remote computer screen sharing software that he allegedly tricked Kitboga’s character into downloading, and gets very excited about a large potential payoff.
However, the punchline comes when Kitboga, who portrays an elderly woman in the video, mistakenly provides the scammer’s wallet address before transferring all the funds. As a result, the swindler becomes very angry and starts taunting Kitboga with a series of profanities.
In particular, the scammer appears to have provided a Kraken-hosted BTC wallet address, which essentially allows the crypto exchange to identify them and flag their activity.
The idea behind this collaboration seems to have been made possible by Kraken’s head of security Nick Percoco and Kitboga.
Kitboga has 1.2 million followers on Twitch and 3 million followers on YouTube. His content generally revolves around comically wasting the time of call center scammers by playing a bunch of non-tech savvy characters.
In some cases, he has also managed to get their dubious websites removed by reporting the fraud to the hosting companies these websites are stored with.
“Every day there are fraudsters who take advantage of people. I call them out for wasting their time, leading people through their ‘scripts’ and lies, reporting information when I can, and otherwise making light of a dark situation,” his YouTube profile reads.
Cointelegraph reached out to Kitboga for comment.
In a May 1 video, Kitboga highlighted a new BTC-related “social security scam” that targets victims via email or text claiming strange purchases have been made with their bank accounts.
Related: April’s Crypto Scams, Exploits and Hacks Lead to Lost $103 Million — CertiK
But when victims call the numbers provided, the scammers claim that their identity has been stolen and that they need to withdraw all their money, buy BTC and send the money to a “secure government wallet.”
Kitboga was clearly having fun with these scammers by pretending to get their “grandchild” to buy 10,000 BTC and send it to the wrong address.
Blade: $3.4 Billion in Bitcoin in a Popcorn Box — The Silk Road Hacker’s Story
