A hot new cryptocurrency that has attracted a lot of attention and investment may actually just be a scam aimed at stealing people’s money, researchers have claimed.
According to Check Point Research (CPR) experts, the developers behind Dingo Token designed the smart contract to be able to manipulate fees and empty users’ wallets.
Every cryptocurrency has fees – micropayments designed to encourage people to join the network and be rewarded for validating the transactions. But while the fees are usually low (with exceptions, obviously), Crypto Dingo Token owners have included a feature in the smart contract that allows them to increase the fee to 99%.
A “clear fraud”
According to the CPR, owners can collect 95% of the transaction in taxFee and another 4% in LiquidityFee. So far, the function has been used 47 times.
Crypto Dingo Token is currently ranked at number 5462 with a market cap of $4,159,936.
“The Dingo token is a clear scam. We found backdoor code added to the token smart contract that allows the owner to change the fee,” said Oded Vanunu, Head of Products Vulnerabilities Research at Check Point Software. “They changed it to an incredible 99% fee. This is a common tactic that freezes users’ funds and eventually scammers take all the money.”
According to Vanunu, cryptocurrencies are a great industry for scammers as they allow all kinds of malicious campaigns while keeping their own identities (opens in new tab) a secret. Finally, most cryptocurrencies are pseudonymous, which allows people to receive large sums of money while remaining anonymous.
“Scammers are increasingly finding cryptocurrencies attractive. You can remain anonymous. It’s fast. It’s lucrative. If you have crypto in your investment portfolio or are interested in investing in crypto in the future, you should use credible exchanges and buy from an established token with numerous transactions behind it.”
