Scam Alert: Brand New Type of Scam Spotted by Binance CEO

Binance’s chief executive officer, Richard Teng, has addressed the global Binance community, warning them against falling for a new type of scam the Binance team has spotted lately.

This time, scammers are operating over the phone, trying to manipulate users into changing their APIs.

Fake Binance support calls

Richard Teng raised an alarm about a new type of scam — calls from a fake Binance support service. He warned users once again that not a single Binance employee will ever ask users to share their passwords or credentials over the phone.

To reveal more details of this new scam, Teng shared a link to a recent Binance blog post. This article also offers practical steps for users to protect themselves.

These scam attacks start like average calls, and the speakers sound confident and official, claiming to be from the customer support service. They “warn” users that there are “urgent security updates” taking place now, and they guide them to change their APIs (application programming interface) settings. They can also say that “your Binance account may be at risk.”

The dangerous thing about falling for this trap is that by following their guidance, users hand over the keys to their wallets to scammers without realizing it and risk losing all of their crypto. Posing themselves as trusted Binance reps, scammers “bypass natural skepticism and trick users into opening the gates themselves,” the article says.

According to data from the article, each victim affected by this scam has lost from hundreds to several thousand USDT. Besides, many victims feel shocked since the attack came from the most unexpected place — the Binance support team or scammers impersonating them.

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Self-protection guide for Binance users

Binance is doing its best to protect its users. In particular, they “track call patterns and API misuse to identify and block attacker networks.” However, users must think of their own wallet security first of all.

Therefore, Binance recommends never falling for those calls, since all legitimate update notifications come either via email or the Binance app. Users should activate 2F-Authentication, implement a passkey for extra security, secure their IP settings and monitor their Binance account activity. As for suspicious phone calls, they should be reported to Binance.