While the giant PayPal had only just announced the launch of its own stablecoin dollar, malicious individuals took the opportunity to launch a new scam. In total, nearly 80 fake tokens were identified on various blockchains, all of which ended up falling to zero, leaving investors with empty pockets.
PayPal USD already a target of scams
This Monday 7 August 2023 was marked by an important announcement: PayPal is launching its own stablecoin dollar. Called PYUSD, it is intended to be the cornerstone of the application developed by the American payment giant.
However, even before stablecoin was made available by PayPal, crooks were already trying to trick unsuspecting users. In less than 24 hours, 79 fake tokens were created on networks such as Ethereum, the BNB Chain, Polygon and Base.
The scheme is very simple. It involves issuing a token called “PYUSD”, adding liquidity to the token to make it more credible and advertising it on social networks to encourage users to buy it.
Obviously, the scammers didn’t bother to ensure that their fake stablecoins were backed by the dollar. Most of the tokens were artificially pumped up by their creator before collapsing a few hours later, leaving investors without their initial investment.
It’s hard to believe that anyone could fall for such a rudimentary scam. Nevertheless, it’s worth remembering that there are plenty of malicious people out there who will do anything to get their hands on your precious digital assets, so you need to be as careful as possible.
Far removed from all the scams and frauds costing tens of thousands of dollars, PayPal is facing a storm of criticism. Experts have examined the code of the PYUSD smart contract and identified a number of censorship functions that have not failed to provoke a reaction from the community.
