It appears yet another cryptocurrency ICO has fallen victim to a hack or a scam. For the time being, it is unclear if this was a deliberate move by the Enigma team or not. The team will host their ICO soon, yet someone modified their pre-ICO website. A new Ethereum deposit address was listed for deposits, yet it appears to be a fake one. Etherscan is listing this address as potentially fake as well. Just over $400,000 worth of Ether has been collected by this address already.
It is not uncommon to see cryptocurrency ICOs suffer from hacks and scams. A lot of projects aim to raise money without having so much as a demo available. Enigma is one of the projects expected to kick off their pre-ICO soon. Unfortunately, they were beaten to the punch by a nefarious individual. Somehow, this hacker gained access to the website’s backend and modified the Ethereum deposit address for the Enigma pre-ICO. Before anyone noticed the real damage, over 1,300 Ether had already been sent to this wallet..
This means $428,500 worth of funds is in the hands of the wrong people. It is unclear why people are still sending money to this address at the time of writing. The last transfer occurred 3 minutes ago, but it is likely more will follow. It is unclear what will happen to this funds, though, as it has not been moved yet. Do keep in mind hackers hardly ever return this funds to their rightful owners. The Enigma team may have to issue tokens to these senders regardless. A similar incident occurred to the InsureX crowdsale not too long ago.
Enigma Pre-ICO Hack Causes Big Financial Losses
Thankfully, Etherscan was alerted about this incident. The block explorer immediately flagged this Ethereum address as potentially suspicious. It is also labeled as “Fake_Phishing28” on their explorer right now. Then again, it is up to the Enigma team to get rid of this fake pre-ICO page as soon as possible.Until that happens, more people will fall victim to this scam and waste their Ether accordingly. Once again, someone is making nearly half a million dollars due to a cryptocurrency ICO scam. A very disturbing turn of events, to say the least.
It is evident these cryptocurrency ICOs are more of a plague than a blessing. Although there certainly are legitimate projects out there, the risks are still big. Not just due to potentially fake deposit addresses, but also because of the projects not delivering in the end. Enigma is not off to a good start in this regard. Until we know more about this hack, any explanation remains plausible. It is possible this is orchestrated by a team member who wants to get rich quick. It is also possible an unknown entity is behind this hack. For now, all we can do is speculate and hope for the best possible outcome.
Header image courtesy of Shutterstock
Our Social Networks: Facebook Instagram Pinterest Reddit Telegram Twitter Youtube
