Scammers Impersonate Shiba Inu Lead Developer For Shibarium Giveaway

Scammers have continued to target Shiba Inu community members by impersonating lead developer Shytoshi Kusama.

Shibarmy Scam Alert has brought the community’s attention to a Twitter account posing as Kusama. The fraudulent Twitter account is using the identity of the SHIB lead developer to promote a fake Shibarium giveaway.

In a tweet yesterday, Shibarmy Scam Alert warned the community not to click on the Shibarium giveaway link. However, he urged Shiba Inu community members to report the fake user posing as Kusama.

🚨SHIBARMY WARNING: 🚨

DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK

🛑shibarium-network. com🛑

Just report via the link below 👇🏽 https://t.co/rZLlqt4DoV…

⚠️ Report to twitter @SkytoshiKusama

Keep safe out there #shibarmy #Scam pic.twitter.com/JfBuzzBEKF

— Shibarmy Scam Alerts (@susbarium) July 3, 2023

Our Findings

Notably, the Twitter account is a close replica of Kusama’s official Twitter account. The malefactors used Kusama’s display picture, name, and cover picture.

However, the username differs due to Twitter’s rules. While Kusama’s official Twitter account username is @ShytoshiKusama, the impersonator’s account is @SkytoshiKusama.

Another significant difference in both accounts is the date they joined Twitter. Kusama’s official account was created in January 2021, but the impostor joined Twitter in March 2023.

Furthermore, there is a massive difference in the number of followers. While the hoax account has about 11.9K followers, Kusama’s official account boasts 919.5K followers.

The fake Kusama account started tweeting about Shiba Inu-related activities on June 21, 2023. One day, it retweeted multiple tweets from the official Kusama account and made other fraudulent posts. This was to create an illusion of authenticity.

In a June 21 post, the scammer claimed that the official Shibarium rewards are live. It called on Shiba Inu ecosystem token holders, including BONE, SHIB, and LEASH, to participate in the giveaway event via a link attached to the tweet.

Interestingly, the tweet has gotten a massive 35.5K views, with 1,561 retweets. However, the scammer turned off comments to prevent informed Shiba Inu community members from exposing the scam. 

Furthermore, the scammers continued promoting the fake Shibarium giveaway using the hoax Kusama account from June 22 to July 3. The scammer’s tweet for yesterday has attracted 33.3K views, 1,942 likes, and 6.3K retweets.

At press time, it is unknown whether any SHIB community member has fallen prey to the scam.

Shiba Inu Is Not Running Any Giveaway

It is worth noting that Shiba Inu is not running any Shibarium giveaway event. Shibarium is still in beta testing, with no precise date on when the L2 scaling solution will launch on the mainnet.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time scammers have impersonated Kusama to promote fake Shibarium giveaways. As reported in May, malefactors used this similar tactic to target unsuspecting Shiba Inu community members.