Bill Lou, CEO and co-founder of the security-focused cryptocurrency wallet Nest, lost 52 stETH (~$125,000) after falling victim to an airdrop scam.
I’m devastated guys…
I just got scammed out of $125k of stEth while trying to claim the $LFG airdrop. And I’m a fking founder of a wallet startup that’s trying to improve wallet security…
I can’t believe this is happening, I’ve always been so careful. I saw article guide to… pic.twitter.com/x56HR2z8xK
— Bill Lou (@BillLou95) January 2, 2024
The developer became interested in the LFG token distribution, which was announced on January 1. The project rewards Ethereum users who have spent more than $4269 on transaction fees since 2016, encouraging them to switch to the Solana blockchain.
Lou clicked on a link from the top of Google’s search results, which led to a fraudulent website.
“I saw an article guide on the distribution and clicked the link to sign a message [in the wallet],” explained the startup head.
He noted that he used MetaMask instead of the beta version of Nest, which still had some bugs to fix.
“Transaction simulation is just necessary,” he emphasized in a conversation with The Block. “It’s built into Nest Wallet, but completely absent in MetaMask. This could have been completely avoided.”
Lou is not the only experienced market participant to fall victim to a scam airdrop. Wallets of many other users have been similarly drained.
⚠️Breaking: Do not click any links dealing with the $LFG token.
The co-founder of Solana retweeted a tweet from them that resulted in many people getting their wallets drained.
It’s supposedly an airdrop on Solana for how much gas speed you’ve spent on $ETH.
Please retweet… pic.twitter.com/flAtLlL0TD
— Jacob Canfield (@JacobCanfield) January 2, 2024
Acknowledging the issue, representatives of the legitimate project urged users to report such fraudulent accounts and websites.
We are aware of several scam accounts impersonating us and are reporting them. Please do the same and help protect your fellow users!
THIS IS OUR OFFICIAL TWITTER AND THE ONLY SITE TO CLAIM $LFG IS: https://t.co/YfaJtYrEIc
— LFG (@LessFnGas) January 2, 2024
During the airdrop, the LessFnGas team plans to distribute 400 billion tokens among 387,000 eligible wallets. At the time of writing, LFG trades at $0.00006991.
From 2020 to 2023, the 50 largest airdrops by DeFi projects distributed tokens worth a total of $26.6 billion to users.