Key facts:
The criminals want the funds deposited in the state bitcoin wallet.
In the face of failures and deception, some Salvadorans believe that it is better not to use the government application.
The government of El Salvador issued a statement to alert the population about a false promotion launched on social networks aimed at users of the Chivo Wallet, which promises USD 50 in exchange for answering the questions of a survey. Apparently, the attackers have launched this scam method to gain public attention and gain control of the targeted account through phishing.
“The population is suggested to remain alert to avoid being a victim of this type of scam that can generate the theft of personal data, or some other type of crime related to their personal finances,” says the notification governmental.
Although the government did not say if any victims have been reported, it is suspected that by clicking on the link to participate in the fake survey and providing the username and password, victim relinquishes control of bitcoin (BTC) wallet to criminals. These, then, will subtract the deposited funds.
“For this reason, it is noted that the Chivo Wallet company is not requesting your personal data or access to the application,” adds the official statement. He warns that the official accounts in social networks of the Chivo Wallet have been supplanted by illegally using the logo of the Government of El Salvador.
Users ask for answers to the failures of the Chivo Wallet
The announcement published by the government to alert about the scam method has once again raised a wave of complaints due to the multiple failures that users have experienced when using the Chivo Wallet application. Some have lost money due to failed transactions. What’s more, the app has network interoperability issues and there were cases of identity theft through it
Even Tracoda, acronym for the association Transparency, Social Comptrollership and Open Data, carried out tests with the Chivo wallet and the results were not positiveas reported by CriptoNoticias.
Given this, there are those considers that “the scam begins at the moment of using the Chivo Wallet, something that the government did not notice.” Others believe that the best solution is not to use the application launched to promote the use of bitcoin in El Salvador.
In any case, at the beginning of February, the government of Nayib Bukele reported that the US company Alphapoint will provide technological support to correct some faults that Chivo Wallet currently presents.