U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken has provided a novel way of flagging nefarious wallets — creating a fake crypto account on the exchange to use bad actors as “scam bait.”
In a May 10 tweet, popular streamer Kitboga — whose content revolves around pesky scammers — revealed that Kraken created a “custom environment” for him, which he used to frustrate a scammer posing as President Joe Biden , with whom he previously had a conflict about a year ago.
In the accompanying video clip, Kitboga can be seen with around $450,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) in his fake crypto account created by Kraken.
The scammer then sees the funds via video remote computer screen sharing software he allegedly tricked Kitboga’s character into downloading and is very excited about a potential big payday.
The punchline comes when Kitboga, who portrays an elderly woman in the video, mistakenly enters the scammer’s wallet address before transferring all the money. As a result, the impostor becomes very angry and begins to abuse Kitboga with a lot of swear words.
Specifically, the scammer appears to have provided a Kraken-hosted BTC wallet address, which essentially allows the crypto exchange to identify him and tag his activities.
The idea behind this collaboration seems to have been made possible by Kraken’s Chief Security Officer Nick Percoco and Kitboga.
Kitboga has 1.2 million followers on Twitch and 3 million followers on YouTube. Its content generally revolves around comedically wasting call center scammers’ time by playing a bunch of non-technical characters.
In some cases, he also managed to get the dubious websites deleted by reporting the scam to the hosting companies that stored those websites.
“Every day there are scammers taking advantage of people. I call on you to waste your time exposing your script and lies to people, reporting information when I can, and otherwise shedding light on a grim situation,” his YouTube profile reads.
Cointelegraph reached out to Kitboga for comment.
In a May 1 video, Kitboga pointed to a new BTC-related “Social Security scam” targeting victims via email or SMS, claiming that strange purchases were made with their bank accounts.
Related: April’s Crypto Scams, Exploits and Hacks Resulted in $103 Million Loss – CertiK
However, when victims call the numbers provided, the scammers claim that their identities have been stolen and that they need to withdraw all their cash, buy BTC, and send the money to a “secure government wallet.”
Kitboga obviously enjoyed these scammers by pretending to trick their “grandson” into buying 10,000 BTC and sending it to the wrong address.
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