The founder of the Cardano blockchain, Charles Hoskinson, taken took to Twitter to inform investors of a new scam scheme that has sprung up suddenly and is targeting ADA holders exclusively. According to Hoskinson, the scammers are impersonating him to send messages to members of the ADA community.
In the post, the Cardano founder reiterated that he would “never email ADA holders directly.” He also revealed that scammers have tried various tactics to impersonate him and scam ADA investors out of their money.
Scammers target members of the ADA community
Hoskinson discovered the ongoing scam tactics through an unknown ADA enthusiast who contacted him about the evil scheme. The ADA user reported that while impersonating him, the scammers sent emails about a newly launched project called the “Hoskinson Health and Wellness Clinic.”
The scammers wrote that the launch of the medical facility is part of Hoskinson’s vision to build a “strong” ecosystem for Cardano.
They also noted that the medical center, based in Wyoming, will include ADA as a payment option. The scammers’ emails state that lives are easily lost if people don’t disclose their medical information in a timely manner.
So they stated that easy availability and accessibility of medical information through innovative technology like Cardano would help save more lives quickly.
Furthermore, the malicious email stated that the recently launched medical facility is the first medical multichain on the Cardano network.
It mentioned that the impact of such a project on the blockchain ecosystem and in life could become quite significant once this kind of project reaches its peak.
Finally, the email convinced ADA investors to do more research on the medical chain project while increasing their investment interest in ADA.
Hoskinson offers some tips for identifying scammers
While letting investors know about the ongoing scam, Hoskinson offered some tips for identifying scammers. Hoskinson noted that the tips would help weed out those impersonating the Cardano founder.
The founder advises members of the ADA community to verify the identity of senders of suspicious emails by asking them to do so.
To ensure security, the verification process should include obtaining Hoskinson’s Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) key signature. Hoskinson has confirmed that scammers cannot replicate this signature. PGP keys are public encryption keys designed for the specific purposes of encrypting or signing emails, files, and folders.
When you create a PGP key, the system generates a public and private key pair so that you can receive and open an encrypted message. But you can send the public key to the sender and use your private key to decrypt the message when it arrives. In that case, someone impersonating you can’t produce your public key, as Hoskinson pointed out.
Meanwhile, ADA is trading around $0.3748 at the time of writing, indicating a 1.78% decline over the past 24 hours. Dates from CoinMarketCap shows that the market capitalization is about $13.07 billion.
Featured image from Pixabay and chart from TradingView.com