Prisma Finance Suffers $11.6M Hack in Liquid Staking Shockwave, Moves to Mitigate Fallout

March 28, 2024 Bitcoin.com

Revoke adds new feature after users complain of fake approvals scam

July 10, 2023 Coin Telegraph

approvals

Scammers have found a new way to make crypto by luring users into revoking fake approval transactions.

Approval management platform Revoke has issued a fix aimed at mitigating a new crypto scam, which involves baiting crypto users into revoking “fake approvals” and then stinging them with excessively high transaction fees.

On July 9, Revoke.cash stated that it had received reports of people seeing unknown approval transactions in their transaction history.

Yesterday, we received reports of people seeing unknown approval transactions in their transaction history.

It turns out that this is a new scam where scammers use so-called gas tokens to steal money when victims revoke these "fake approvals". pic.twitter.com/vpY2sGIv0T
— Revoke.cash (@RevokeCash) July 9, 2023

In reality, scammers have been using what are known as “gas tokens” to trick victims into believing they have suspicious transaction approvals.

“It turns out that this is a new scam where scammers use so-called gas tokens to steal money when victims revoke these "fake approvals".”

Gas tokens were developed when Ethereum network fees started climbing. Users could effectively store cheap gas during periods of low network demand.

“This allowed users to mint gas tokens when fees were low, and burn them when fees were high, effectively "locking in" the lower fee,” explained Revoke.

However, Revoke said that scammers have been creating fake gas tokens that they airdrop with fake approvals that users think they need to revoke.

The spurious tokens have been programmed to generate a lot of gas during the revoked transaction with the newly minted gas tokens being sent back to the scammers leaving the victim with a high transaction fee.

Revoke said it has now addressed the issue by adding a check that disables revoking approvals if there's an excessive gas fee. It advised users to ignore the fake approvals:

“Best thing to do with these fake approvals / fake tokens is to ignore them. As long as you don't interact with them, they can't steal your funds.”

Revoke is a preventative tool that helps users practice safer crypto wallet behavior by managing or revoking active approvals such as those no longer required by DeFi protocols.

*Revoke's new fix to combat the gas token approval scam. Source: Twitter*

Platforms such as Revoke have been urging users to revoke approvals for Multichain following the multi-million dollar network exploit on July 7. This has given scammers a new avenue to lure victims to approve their fake transaction revokes.

Magazine: Crypto Twitter Hall of Flame, Gabriel Haines: Shirtless shitposting and hunting SBF on the meme streets

Plaid suspends FTX.US access to user data after ‘concerning’ reports

November 13, 2022 Coin Telegraph

ACCESS

United-States-based Twitter users had been reporting suspicious data access requests from FTX.US to their bank accounts.

Plaid is a fintech company that facilitates communication between financial services apps and users’ banks and credit card providers.

In FTX.US’ case, its products enable users to allow FTX.US customers to connect their bank accounts to the FTX app. This would then allow FTX.US to request payments that will be processed by the ACH network.

In a pinned Tweet on Nov. 12, Plaid announced it has suspended FTX’s access to Plaid products as of approximately 6:30 am UTC on Nov. 12, meaning that “FTX can no longer retrieve any financial information via Plaid.”

Plaid suspended FTX’s access to Plaid products as of 11/11/22 at approximately 10:30PM PT. FTX can no longer retrieve any financial information via Plaid.

To provide as much clarity for end-users as possible, we’ve compiled the following FAQs. https://t.co/QbyNtXUH5r
— Plaid (@Plaid) November 13, 2022

In an earlier Tweet, Plaid said the suspension was due to “concerning public reports,” though noted that there is “currently no indication that Plaid has been used as a vector for fraudulent activity.”

On Nov. 12, Twitter users began reporting that FTX.US had attempted to access their accounts through Plaid. Reports so far only suggest that the users’ data has been accessed, and no reports so far suggest that any funds have been removed.

PSA: If you have a bank account linked to FTX US, change your bank account password and stop sharing data immediately.

Below is a screenshot of my bank account, which they tried accessing 40 mins ago pic.twitter.com/sdnaUFEzOW
— Mike McGuiness ᵍᵐ (@mikemcg0) November 12, 2022

Others have warned others to immediately change their bank account passwords and to revoke access rights on Plaid.

If you had Plaid / Stripe connected to FTX make sure to revoke access in your bank account immediately!

For Chase it’s under Security & Privacy and listed as “MX Technologies” at least for FTX US. pic.twitter.com/lwsuF4iPTQ
— Birch (@BitcoinBirch) November 12, 2022

In an FAQ, Plaid also suggested that some of these access requests could be part of automated financial information checks conducted by Plaid, which are done on a regular schedule.

It has also reiterated that since suspending access, FTX has not been able to retrieve any information from Plaid accounts.

The financial technology provider that allows FTX.US users to link their bank accounts to the FTX app has suspended the U.S.-based exchange’s access to its products, citing “concerning public reports” of fraudulent activity.

Estonia Considers Revoking Crypto Licenses as Government Mulls Tougher Regulations

October 16, 2021 Bitcoin.com

revoke

Share this video