CipherTrace has issued a fraud alert with extensions to the Google Chrome browser masquerading as the MetaMask cryptocurrency wallet.
In its warning, CipherTrace writes that over the past 24 hours, there has been a “significant increase in complaints and comments about the loss of digital assets” following the installation of the fraudulent wallet.
The cryptocurrency community has criticized MetaMask, saying the company is not making enough efforts to combat counterfeit wallets. To which MetaMask Product Director Jacob Cantele asked the community for advice:
“What can we improve? We have alerts in our wallet, we have a fraudulent site detector that warns of tens of thousands of such sites, and we regularly launch marketing campaigns. ”
Fraudulent sites and extensions work quite simply. A user visits such a site that completely copies the look of the MetaMask site, installs a fake extension and enters a passphrase from the wallet. Attackers use a password to withdraw tokens.
To protect yourself from fraud, computer security experts recommend installing extensions either from the official MetaMask website or from the official Google Chrome extension store. If in doubt, you can check the legitimacy of the site through the CryptoscamDB portal.
The MetaMask wallet is one of the most popular wallets for Ethereum. With the growth of the DeFi industry, MetaMask has surpassed 1 million users.
