Blockchain safety agency PeckShield has raised the alarm after discovering dozens of tokens purporting to be associated to synthetic intelligence (AI) powered chatbot ChatGPT.
“In a Feb. 20 submit, the agency revealed a minimum of three “BingChatGPT” tokens look like a part of honeypot schemes — a wise contract that methods a consumer into sending Ether (ETH), which the attacker then traps and retrieves.
In accordance with PeckShield, a minimum of two of the tokens recognized have already misplaced almost 100% of their worth, whereas a 3rd is at a 65% loss — in what’s sometimes called a “pump and dump” scheme or “rug pull.”
A pump-and-dump scheme sometimes includes the creators orchestrating a marketing campaign of deceptive statements and hype to influence buyers into buying tokens, then secretly promoting their stake within the scheme when costs go up.
At the very least one of many dangerous actors behind the tokens, “Deployer 0xb583,” is liable for creating “dozens of tokens with a pump & dump scheme,” mentioned PeckShield.
#PeckShieldAlert PeckShield has detected dozens of newly created #BingChatGPT tokens, of which 3 look like #honeypots & 2 have excessive promote tax. 2 of them have already dropped over -99%.
Deployer 0xb583 has already created dozens of tokens with a pump & dump scheme #AI #ChatGPT pic.twitter.com/merQikuslk— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) February 20, 2023
Whereas PeckShield didn’t clarify why the dangerous actors are utilizing the title BingChatGPT for his or her tokens, the scammers may very well be making an attempt to benefit from the Feb. 7 announcement that OpenAI’s ChatGPT tech is being built-in into Bing and Microsoft’s Edge internet browser.
The token’s title may be an try and trick victims into pondering they’re in some way associated to Microsoft and benefit from the hype round AI chatbots.
Blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis lately famous in a Feb. 16 report that almost 10,000 new tokens launched in 2022 had all of the on-chain traits of being pump-and-dump schemes.
In accordance with the Blockchain analytics agency, 1.1 million tokens have been launched final yr, however solely 40,521 had an “influence on the crypto ecosystem,”with a minimum of ten swaps over 4 consecutive days of buying and selling within the week following their launch.
“Of the 40,521 tokens launched in 2022 that gained ample traction to be price analyzing, 9,902, or 24%, noticed a value decline within the first week indicative of doable pump and dump exercise,” the agency mentioned.
Associated: Wormhole hacker strikes one other $46M of stolen funds
Whereas a value drop by itself will not be a sign of wrongdoing on the a part of token creators, the agency famous that it examined 25 particularly and located “they have been virtually definitely designed for a pump and dump,” with malicious honeypot code that forestalls new consumers from promoting the token.