Cryptocurrency users should exercise extreme caution as a prominent industry leader warns of a potential new wave of crypto airdrop scam emails.
Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether, revealed that a prominent email list management provider widely used by crypto firms was allegedly compromised in a data breach.
Ardoino alerted his 234,000 followers in a June 5 X post:
“We received now 2 independent confirmations that a prominent vendor used by crypto companies to manage mailing lists might have been compromised.”
Although Tether’s CEO has not disclosed the name of the breached company, he promised more details after the investigation is complete:
“Not making names yet until investigation is completed, but please beware of any emails suggesting crypto-airdrops received since 24 hours ago.”
Cointelegraph has approached Tether for comment.
To protect against phishing emails, Hakan Unal, senior blockchain scientist at on-chain security firm Cyvers, advises users to double-check the authenticity of emails and enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on crypto platforms.
He told Cointelegraph:
“The immediate concern is the risk posed to individuals who might receive these compromised emails.
“To stay safe, users should verify the authenticity of such emails and enable multifactor authentication on all crypto accounts.”
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Minutes after Ardoino’s initial warning, the attack was confirmed by cryptocurrency tracking site CoinGecko.
The breach has impacted a crypto email newsletter vendor used by several companies, according to Bobby Ong, the co-founder and chief operating officer of CoinGecko.
Ong warned users that CoinGecko might be affected in a June 5 X post:
“We at CoinGecko may be potentially affected and are actively working with our vendor to investigate further to determine the extent of this breach.
“We have seen phishing CoinGecko emails being sent from other client accounts.
“There is no CoinGecko token being planned so don’t be duped by the phishing emails.”
Ong cautioned users not to click on any links related to a fraudulent CoinGecko token or any emails promising new token launches.
Crypto scams and hacks remain a major concern in the cryptocurrency industry.
Over $574 million worth of digital assets were lost across 30 individual crypto hacks in May 2024, according to a June 1 X post by PeckShield.
This represents an approximate month-over-month increase of 666% from the $385 million lost to crypto hacks in April.
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