Remove HEX Airdrop scam

The “HEX Airdrop” scam refers to an attempt to steal users’ cryptocurrencies by imitating the legitimate Hex website. Hex is a legitimate blockchain-based certificate of deposit (CD) system, with hex.com as the official website. To take advantage of Hex’s popularity, malicious actors have created an imitation site (events-hex.net) that tries to trick users into connecting their digital wallets and initiating a crypto drainer. This could lead to cybercriminals stealing all of the users’ funds right from their accounts. It goes without saying that Hex has nothing to do with this scam.

 

 

There has recently been a noticeable increase in crypto scams that try to trick users into initiating a crypto drainer, and we’ve written about several of them before, including the SyncAppFix scam, the Onyx Goliath Staking crypto scam, and the Resolv Discord Verification scam. They all work more or less in the same way. Malicious actors choose a popular crypto platform to impersonate, create somewhat similar sites, and start a promotion campaign on various social media sites to attract users to those sites. If users interact with those sites, they may end up initiating a crypto drainer that would drain all the cryptocurrencies in their digital wallets.

The HEX Airdrop operates in much the same way as the already mentioned scams. The scam is hosted on events-hex.net, and it’s impersonating Hex, a blockchain-based certificate of deposit (CD) system that rewards users for holding their tokens for extended periods. The legitimate site for Hex is hex.com. The sites look very similar in design, though the content differs. When you enter events-hex.net, you will immediately get a pop-up that asks you to connect your wallet. If you engage with the site and do as it asks, you will initiate a cryptocurrency drainer that will transfer all funds in the digital wallet to accounts that belong to the malicious actors operating this scam. The transactions may be made over time, so users may not immediately notice.

It goes without saying that the actual Hex has nothing to do with this scam. Malicious actors are merely using Hex’s popularity for their own malicious purposes. The increasing prominence of such crypto scams just stresses how careful crypto users need to be.

Links to crypto scams are often promoted on social media sites

Users often encounter links to scams, such as the “HEX Airdrop”, primarily through social media platforms and in the comments sections of various online forums, articles, and video content. Malicious actors exploit all types of social media platforms to promote cryptocurrency scams, with X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube standing out as main venues for this type of fraud. A very common tactic involves impersonating well-known figures, particularly individuals like Elon Musk, who is known to be interested in cryptocurrencies.

Links to crypto scams are especially common on X, where the lack of proper moderation has created an environment that allows crypto scams to thrive. For instance, the comments sections under Musk’s tweets are frequently flooded with fake accounts imitating him and falsely announcing crypto giveaways or similar promotions. These impersonators make profiles that mimic genuine accounts, often using variations in usernames or profile pictures to deceive less attentive or inexperienced users.

YouTube also plays a significant role in promoting cryptocurrency-related scams. Malicious actors often hijack abandoned channels that have a significant number of subscribers. They repurpose these channels to upload misleading videos that typically feature Elon Musk or some Tesla events, falsely advertising lucrative crypto giveaways designed to immediately attract potential investors.