{"id":88640,"date":"2023-12-25T10:10:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-25T08:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=88640"},"modified":"2025-09-13T19:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T16:19:11","slug":"fake-on-chain-sleuth-zachxbt-accounts-surface-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/fake-on-chain-sleuth-zachxbt-accounts-surface-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Fake on-chain sleuth ZachXBT accounts surface online"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fake profiles of the popular researcher ZachXBT, known for publicly exposing fraudulent cryptocurrency projects, spread on social media.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">? ATTENTION<\/p>\n<p>keep your eyes peeled there are already fake <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/zachxbt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@zachxbt<\/a> accounts trying to scam people in the form of offering assistance <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OjiacLZZJ1\">pic.twitter.com\/OjiacLZZJ1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MichaelK.eth (@MichaelKdcl) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MichaelKdcl\/status\/1738702378893750510?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 23, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Michael Hekoyan, a senior executive at Wallet Guard, warned that attackers pose as the blogger, offering victims &#8220;help&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>This situation followed the real ZachXBT deactivating his X account for an &#8220;indefinite period&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/telegram.org\/js\/telegram-widget.js?22\" data-telegram-post=\"investigations\/78\" data-width=\"100%\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In his Telegram channel, the investigator also warned users against buying GROK meme coins that trade on his name, though he did not reveal the reasons for leaving social media.<\/p>\n<p>In June ZachXBT <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/on-chain-analyst-zachxbt-comments-on-defamation-suit-filed-against-him\">faced a lawsuit<\/a> from entrepreneur Jeff Huang, known on X as MachiBigBrother. He accused the sleuth of defamation and causing reputational damage.<\/p>\n<p>The dispute related to a <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@investigationsbyzachxbt\/22-000-eth-embezzled-and-over-ten-projects-failed-the-story-of-machi-big-brother-jeff-huang-a1ad073fcfa8\">article<\/a> from 2022, in which the investigator accused Machi Big Brother of allegedly siphoning 22,000 ETH from Formosa Financial, a crypto-asset management company, in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>ZachXBT was supported, including financially, by major players such as former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell, and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal. In August the sides <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/zachxbt-reports-peaceful-settlement-of-defamation-suit-against-him\">reached a peaceful settlement of the claims<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In November, GROK meme token holders <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/grok-meme-token-holders-criticise-on-chain-sleuths-work\">criticised<\/a> the work of the on-chain sleuth, as after his investigation the coin&#8217;s price collapsed to zero. The asset was created in the likeness of Elon Musk&#8217;s eponymous chatbot and is linked to a well-known scam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fake profiles of the popular researcher ZachXBT, known for publicly exposing fraudulent cryptocurrency projects, spread on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88641,"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":[1209,1246],"class_list":["post-88640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-fake-news","tag-scammers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"17","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88640","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=88640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88642,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88640\/revisions\/88642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}