A set of hackers managed to impersonate Binance’s Chief Communications Officer (CCO) Patrick Hillman in a series of video calls with representatives of several cryptocurrency projects The attacker was able to impersonate Hillman in a series of video calls with representatives of several cryptocurrency projects. The attackers used what Hillman described as an AI hologram, a deep-fake of his image for this purpose, to successfully trick representatives of several of these projects into believing that Hillman was helping them get listed on the exchange.
Binance CCO Patrick Hillman was impersonated by a third party
Hackers and fraudsters are honing their methods by including many technical tools in their schemes. Patrick Hillmann, Chief Communications Officer (CCO) at Binance,reported last weekon a new and sophisticated way attackers are using his images to run listing fraud operations.
Hillmann stated that the hacker managed to program his AI (Artificial Intelligence) hologram as a kind of deepfake that was used to scam representatives of several cryptocurrency projects on Zoom calls. The holograms were able to convince people that these projects were being considered for listing on Binance and that Hillman was part of this operation.
The listing scheme was discovered when these members contacted Hillmann to thank him for his assistance in the alleged listing opportunity. However, he had no knowledge of these meetings as he was not part of the Binance listing process.
Hillmann did not disclose which cryptocurrency projects were targeted or details of the funds invested for the alleged listing service.
Scams on the Web
About Binance’s CCO also warned about an increase in this type of spoofing scams on several social media platforms on the Internet. In this regard, Hillmann stated.
In addition to this latest incident, there has been a recent surge in hackers pretending to be employees or executives of Binance on platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Telegram. We are prepared to protect our users and our ecosystem.
Hillmann clarified that Binance’s listing process does not include third parties and that project listing proposals are only received through the direct listing application page. According to a blog postpublished last year, Binance does not apply a fixed listing fee to these projects. Regarding the value of listing fees, Binance explains.
There is no fixed figure. Just propose a figure that you are comfortable with. Demonstrate your willingness to contribute to social impact.
In addition, all fees collected by the exchange will be donated to Binance Charity, a blockchain-tracking charity sponsored by the exchange. Listing scams seem to be becoming more common, as the Brazilian crypto investment platform Bluebenx was also a recent victim of this type of scam.
Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Iryna Budanova, Shutterstock.com
