After discovering phishing websites and scams that offered Arbitrum airdrop tokens, the community issued a warning to people to exercise caution.
Ethereum scaling solution with layer-2 The community has issued a warning about hundreds of phishing scams intended to deceive cryptocurrency users, suggesting that the impending Arbitrum “ARB” token airdrop has become a favourite target for scammers.
The airdrop will distribute 10 billion governance tokens via a token airdrop, enabling holders to vote on code modifications, as the Arbitrum Foundation announced in a post on March 16. The scheduled airdrop is for March 23.
However, the development has prompted numerous attempts by scammers to set up fake token airdrops with the goal of defrauding victims of their money before the official event.
Redefine, a blockchain security firm, reported in a post from March 19 that it has discovered a website pretending to be the official Arbitrum airdrop website. The website asks a user to grant access to their funds, which probably results in the scammers draining their wallets, as seen in the screenshots.
Another blockchain security company, CertiK, alerted users to the existence of a fake Arbitrum Twitter account called “arbitrum launch” that promoted a token airdrop. Users have been urged not to interact with it.
Be aware of a fake @arbitrum Twitter account which is advertising a token Airdrop.
Do not interact with this Airdrop.
Always verify Twitter accounts and URLs from trusted sources.
Stay vigilant! pic.twitter.com/gTlSNRzd6l
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) March 19, 2023
On March 19, Reddit user u/CryptoMaximalist created a thread in which he warned that scammers were attempting to take advantage of people who were eager for free money and the complexity of cryptocurrencies.
Before clicking on shared links, all users are advised to investigate a user’s profile and history, as well as see if they are spamming links across several subreddits, according to u/CryptoMaximalist, who claims to have discovered fake Arbitrum Twitter profiles with links to fake Arbitrum websites.
Since the announcement of the token airdrop, the Web3 anti-scam tool Scam Sniffer has already identified over 273 phishing sites associated with Arbitrum, and the number is predicted to increase before the official token drop on March 23.
Gm, $ARB airdrop holders! ☀️
We found a lot of scam accounts calling you to claim airdrop! Don't trust! 🚨
Only legal website: https://t.co/zjxfLBnn9I
The following 6 accounts are official 👇👇@arbitrum@arbitrum_cn@arbitrumcore@ArbitrumDevs@arbitrum_intern@OffchainLabs… pic.twitter.com/0nEqEsnH8k
— ANDAO (💙,🧡) 🦇🔊 (@ArbitrumNewsDAO) March 19, 2023
The Arbitrum Foundation claims that it used a points system to determine who qualified for the Airdrop and how many tokens they may receive.
Eligible actions included performing more than four transactions or interacting with at least four smart contracts, bridging money into the Arbitrum One chain, and putting more than $50,000 worth of liquidity into Arbitrum.
Only 625,143 of the more than 2.3 million wallets bridged on the Arbitrum One chain prior to February 6 are qualified for the airdrop, according to blockchain analytics company Nansen, which helped Arbitrum to design the criteria.
“Organic activity was worth points based on either good (behaviours to encourage) or bad (behaviours to discourage). According to a tweet from Nansen on March 16, “the number of tokens a wallet received in the airdrop was a function of how many points it collected.