Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has been dealing with tons of fraudulent Twitter impersonators seeking to steal cryptocurrency from naive investors – but it seems the trend has gradually caught on to other social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
The young entrepreneur has taken to Twitter to criticize Facebook and Instagram for allowing clearly fraudulent accounts to exist on their platforms. Buterin also took a moment to ask his followers to report the fake accounts, because he does not have one himself.
Vitalik even clarified that he does not use any social media platform other than Twitter and Reddit.
I think it's some social media platform that people use to make scam accounts impersonating crypto personalities to pump crappy ICOs.
At least https://t.co/fjn73K0tQc and https://t.co/VfcDdMlmFo are. Can someone go report them already? I would but it requires an FB account….. https://t.co/w4lEN3i0O8
— Vitalik "Not giving away ETH" Buterin (@VitalikButerin) March 24, 2018
Over 5 days and that https://t.co/fjn73K0tQc account has still not been removed. Shame on you, @facebook. BTW, can someone who has not yet deleted their instagram account please report https://t.co/CgxMmjAsLU ? I HAVE NO SOCIAL MEDIA EXCEPT REDDIT AND TWITTER. https://t.co/SRIE6S8kkx
— Vitalik "Not giving away ETH" Buterin (@VitalikButerin) March 30, 2018
According to the Ethereum founder, it has been more than five days since he first reported the fake accounts to Facebook and Instagram, but the companies have yet to remove them.
In all fairness, Twitter has been struggling with the same issue for several weeks now. Indeed, Buterin is hardly the only person scammers are impersonating on social media. Litecoin founder Charlie Lee complained about the same issue on Twitter last month.
Unlike Facebook and Instagram though, the micro-blogging service appears to be doing a much better job of purging fraudulent accounts from its platform.
In the aftermath of the Cambrdige Analytica scandal, the last thing Facebook needs is a scam epidemic breaking out.
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts also ought to take caution against these impersonating accounts. It is unlikely that Vitalik Buterin, Charlie Lee, or any other influencer is ever going to ask anyone to send them ‘cash’ over social media.
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