{"id":67168,"date":"2022-09-14T18:08:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T15:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=67168"},"modified":"2025-09-07T05:12:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T02:12:48","slug":"wave-of-twitter-scams-impersonating-vitalik-buterin-as-the-merge-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wave-of-twitter-scams-impersonating-vitalik-buterin-as-the-merge-approaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Wave of Twitter scams impersonating Vitalik Buterin as The Merge approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Twitter has been flooded with fake profiles of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, promoting fraudulent cryptocurrency giveaways ahead of the network\u2019s transition to the Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm.<\/p>\n<p>The attackers acquired verified accounts and altered profile details to create the illusion of a genuine Buterin account.<\/p>\n<p>A user under the handle greezbok uploaded a photo of the Ethereum co-founder and offered a chance to win 100,000 ETH ($159 million) in a The Merge\u2013timed giveaway.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"twitter-tweet\\\">\n<p lang=\\\"en\\\" dir=\\\"ltr\\\">To celebrate the Merge, Ethereum Foundation is giving away 100,000 ETH! \ud83c\udf89<\/p>\n<p>First come, first serve \u27a1\ufe0f <a href=\\\"https:\/\/t.co\/ueeqxqUDrv\\\">https:\/\/t.co\/ueeqxqUDrv<\/a><br \/>You can only participate once. <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Ethereum?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">#Ethereum<\/a> <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/EthereumMerge?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">#EthereumMerge<\/a> <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ETH?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">#ETH<\/a> <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Merge?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">#Merge<\/a> <a href=\\\"https:\/\/t.co\/FRxsPw13aF\\\">pic.twitter.com\/FRxsPw13aF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 vitalik.eth (@greezbock) <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/greezbock\/status\/1569793499285041153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">September 13, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\\\"\\\" src=\\\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\\\" charset=\\\"utf-8\\\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This was reported to Buterin. In response, he invoked the scammers&#8217; favourite line, \\&#8221;Why is everybody silent about this?\\&#8221;, accompanying it with a link to Rick Astley&#8217;s Never Gonna Give You Up.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"twitter-tweet\\\">\n<p lang=\\\"en\\\" dir=\\\"ltr\\\">But why is everybodyy silentFQTP on thiss???<a href=\\\"https:\/\/t.co\/TPHtN8zpUJ\\\">https:\/\/t.co\/TPHtN8zpUJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VitalikButerin\/status\/1569928777345695746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">September 14, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\\\"\\\" src=\\\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\\\" charset=\\\"utf-8\\\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to the countdown timer, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/google-launches-countdown-to-the-merge-activation\">launched by Google<\/a>, there are just over 15 hours left until the mainnet migration to PoS.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in September, attackers<a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/hackers-stage-a-fake-xrp-giveaway-on-behalf-of-pwc-venezuela-subsidiary\"> hacked<\/a> PwC Venezuela Twitter account to promote a fake XRP giveaway on behalf of Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. <\/p>\n<p>Later, on the day of the iPhone 14 launch, unknown actors started streaming an old interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook<a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/fraudsters-launch-fake-bitcoin-giveaway-posing-as-apple-presentation\"> in a bid to steal cryptocurrencies<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Follow ForkLog&#8217;s Bitcoin news on our <a href=\\\"\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\u201d\\\" target=\\\"\u201c_blank\u201d\\\" rel=\\\"\u201cnofollow\u201d noopener\\\">Telegram<\/a> \u2014 cryptocurrency news, prices and analytics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twitter has been flooded with fake profiles of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin promoting fraudulent cryptocurrency giveaways ahead of the network\u2019s transition to the Proof-of-Stake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1154,1209,200],"class_list":["post-67168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crimes","tag-fake-news","tag-vitalik-buterin"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"37","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67170,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67168\/revisions\/67170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}