Binance, in cooperation with law enforcement agencies, is launch a campaign to prevent scams by issuing targeted alerts to potential victims, according to a company blog post on March 3. The project, called the “Joint Anti-Scam Campaign”, was first rolled out in Hong Kong and the company now intends to expand it to other jurisdictions.
Maintain our ecosystem and the #Binance Safe community is at the core of what we do.
That’s why we’re partnering with law enforcement around the world to launch the Joint Campaign Against Scams.
Read on to see what it’s all about ⤵️ https://t.co/q9LOtuZm2F
—Binance (@binance) March 3, 2023
According to the company’s post, it collaborated with the Hong Kong Police’s Cyber Security and Technological Crime Bureau to create a “crime warning and prevention message” targeting Hong Kong residents. As part of the pilot project, when users attempted to withdraw, they received warning messages that provided information about common scams and tips on how to avoid them.
Over the course of four weeks, Binance investigated client responses to the messages. It found that approximately 20.4% of users either decided not to withdraw or investigated further to determine if the transaction might be a scam.
The warning provided statistics on the number of scams that occurred in Hong Kong in 2001 and recommended resources such as Scameter, the Anti-Scam Coordination Center, Cyber Defender, and Binance Verify. He also instructed users that Binance will never call them directly.
Related: Scam Alert: Trezor Warns Users About New Phishing Attack
Binance views the pilot program as a success and plans to collaborate with law enforcement in other jurisdictions to create custom warning messages for clients outside of Hong Kong.
Social engineering and phishing scams have been recurring problems for cryptocurrency users. In February, scammers allegedly created a fake version of the ETHDenver convention website, which they then used to trick users into giving away their cryptocurrency by calling a function in a malicious contract. More than $300,000 worth of crypto is believed to have been stolen through the scam. In another example, an influential promoter of non-fungible tokens had over $300,000 worth of CryptoPunks taken from his wallet when he was apparently tricked into interacting with a phishing site.
