According to a Sunday post on Twitter from the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, only about 50 of the 7,000 users who claim to be employed by the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange on Linkedin are real. The crypto executive lamented the lack of a real ID authentication system on Linkedin, saying:
“I wish LinkedIn had a feature that would allow the company to verify people. There are a lot of scammers saying ‘hey, I’m the listing keeper’ on LinkedIn. Be careful.”
The LinkedIn cryptocurrency scam usually begins as an unsolicited request from an apparent crypto exchange executive to project stakeholders regarding a potential token listing. The profiles are cleverly designed to showcase years of experience in the industry, along with multiple connections, sometimes as many as 500+, for an image of apparent legitimacy.
Once the victim is found, the scammer sends a document via email or Telegram with the details of the listing process along with an initial security deposit required for the “service”. Nevertheless, As soon as the victim transfers the requested digital assets to the escrow address, the scammer breaks all contact and pockets the funds.
Legitimate exchanges do not usually require initial deposits or listing fees. Instead, a due diligence team reviews the potential token for security, compliance, legal framework, and overall utility of the project, and then schedules a meeting with the issuer of the asset to discuss next steps. Depending on the scale of the project, developers can be pestered on a daily basis by so-called bogus listing proposals.
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