The rise of crypto has brought about a new wave of scams and frauds, with bad actors seeking to exploit the new and rapidly growing market. But one US crypto exchange, Kraken, has found a novel way to combat these fraudulent activities by building a fake crypto account to “scam bait” bad actors.
Kraken’s approach has already proven successful, as it helped a streamer, Kitboga, foil a scammer attempting to steal $450,000 worth of Bitcoin. Kitboga, whose content revolves around annoying and reporting scammers, was impersonating an elderly woman in the video and had a run-in with the fraudster around a year ago. This time, however, Kraken built him a “custom environment” with around $450,000 worth of Bitcoin in it.
The scammer saw the funds via video remote computer screen-sharing software that he supposedly duped Kitboga’s character into downloading, and got very excited about a big potential payday. However, the punchline comes when Kitboga, who was portraying an elderly woman in the video, incorrectly entered the scammer’s wallet address before sending over all of the funds. As a result, the scammer became extremely angry and started shouting at Kitboga with a long list of swear words.
Notably, the scammer appears to have supplied a Kraken-hosted BTC wallet address, which essentially enables the crypto exchange to identify them and flag their activity. This highlights the potential for exchanges and other players in the crypto industry to collaborate and work together to combat fraudulent activities.
Kraken’s collaboration with Kitboga shows that there are creative ways to fight against scammers and protect crypto investors. While some may argue that building fake accounts and tricking scammers may not be ethical, it’s important to remember that these scammers are the ones trying to steal funds and cause harm. Kraken’s initiative sends a clear message to these fraudsters that they won’t be able to get away with their illicit activities
