I hope you are all well and having a great day, welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things crypto. This post relates to a public service announcement from the FBI, issued on Thursday the 9th of March 2023 via the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
Play 2 Earn Games and Criminals
According to the announcement cybercriminals are making use of fake rewards from 'play 2 earn' games in both mobile web format. This has led to millions in assets being stolen by the criminals. While this is not a new activity, as there have always been plenty of scams in Web 3 to date, it is something the FBI has decided was important enough to issue this warning on.
The criminals create custom gaming apps which often promise huge financial rewards to its users, especially when compared with the initial investment. The criminals are also known to build up trustful relationships with their victims beforehand, luring them into via lengthy conversations and ensuring the soon to be victim believes this person is trustworthy.
"Criminals contact victims online and build a relationship with victims over time. Criminals then introduce victims to an online or mobile game, in which players purportedly earn cryptocurrency rewards in exchange for some activity, such as growing 'crops' on an animated farm."
To play all the potential victim needs to do is create a Web 3 wallet and purchase some cryptocurrency, then they can join a specific game. The criminal will encourage and direct their 'new friend' to do this, and also that the more money they store in their wallet the big the rewards will be. The victims then begin to play the game and see fake rewards building up in their wallet via the app, believing they are earning a cryptocurrency. If the user adds even more funds then they can earn even more rewards, and generally when the potential victim stops adding funds to their wallet the criminals will drain it entirely. This is done via a malicious program the potential victim unknowingly activated upon joining the game. To make matters worse, the criminals will inform the user who had all their funds drained that they can reclaim their stolen funds ONLY if they pay additional taxes or fees, which is of course just another part of the scam.
Ways to Keep Safe
Like with any good public safety announcement, the FBI also provided a list of ways for users to remain safe and vigilant when interacting with Play 2 Earn gaming. To be honest, these are some solid tips and could easily be considered useful when interacting with most Web 3 sites and D'Apps, not just when considering Play 2 Earn. The tips are as follows:
- If you wish to participate in cryptocurrency-based gaming, create a unique wallet to use. This isolates your primary cryptocurrency holdings should you unknowingly grant illicit actors access to your gaming wallet.
- Use a third-party blockchain explorer to independently check the balances of the addresses in your gaming wallet.
- Periodically use a third-party token allowance checker to help you see which sites or apps you have inadvertently permitted to access funds in your wallet and revoke those permissions.
As always, gamers as advised to be alert and vigilant when connecting with any gaming site. The perils of Web 3 are well known, and simply signing into a D'App can lead to entire wallets being drained. It is also paramount to stay alert if any messages or invitations to games appear which promise unrealistic or 'too goo to be true' rewards. Criminals will prey on the greed of others to lure them in, and this is where it is important to always check and double check before signing any transaction in a wallet.
Stay safe out there.
Have a great day.
CryptoGod-1.
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