The exponential growth the cryptocurrency and blockchain markets are currently experiencing has made the space a breeding ground for all sorts of hacks, malicious activities, and phishing traps. But there is a nifty tool that can help you steer clear of this sort of trouble.
The Ethereum Scam Database (EtherscamDB) is a handy website that collects crowdsourced information about heaps of online scams in order to guide rookie cryptocurrency enthusiasts away from falling victim to malicious actors, seeking to snatch their precious coins and empty their wallets.
Since its launch last year, the website has registered a total of 2,614 potentially fraudulent pages, linking them back to 223 different addresses (used by purported scammers to store stolen funds). Fortunately though, most of these have already been resolved.
For context, EtherscamDB indicates that only 253 of all potentially malicious pages registered are currently active.
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What is especially helpful is that EtherscamDB conveniently displays the precise nature of the attack, the original URL where the scam was first noticed, as well as some additional information describing the precise attack vector in more detail.
In addition to that, the website also has a field dedicated to showing precisely which company/service the malicious link is targeting. This should make it easier to filter your search down exclusively to the services you use.
The only problem I’ve encountered using EtherscamDB is that it tends to struggle with server issues pretty often. In fact, the site went down as I was writing this post.
Still, it’s awfully handy for navigating the crypto-space right now, given that scams are growing more frequent of late.
Google was flush with links pointing to malicious copycats of popular exchange desk, Binance. More recently, popular Ethereum wallet, MyEtherWallet (which is responsible for maintaining EtherscamDB), received a slew of complaints from users, reporting someone had stollen their funds. Then there are the almost daily reports of stolen funds from Redditors who unknowingly hand over their private keys to phishing scammers.
Meanwhile, anybody who happens to stumble upon new cryptocurrency scams ought to report such suspicious activity to EtherscamDB. You can use this link to do so.
Update: EtherscamDB went down again as I was writing the piece. We’ve contacted MyEtherWallet and will update this piece one they’ve sorted out the issues.
Update 2: MyEtherWallet has reached out to inform us that EtherscamDB is now back up and running.
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