To Catch a Scammer: Kraken Builds Fake Crypto Account to ‘Bait’ Fraudsters

Building a phony cryptocurrency account on the exchange to “scam bait” unscrupulous actors is an innovative technique offered by American cryptocurrency exchange Kraken for identifying dubious wallets.

On May 10, prominent streamer Kitboga, whose video focuses on frustrating scammers, stated through Twitter that Kraken had constructed him a “custom environment” that he used to bother a con artist posing as President Joe Biden, with whom he had previously had an encounter around a year earlier.

Kitboga is seen in the accompanying video clip holding $27,445 in Bitcoin, or almost $450,000, in a fictitious crypto account created by Kraken. After seeing the money on the video remote computer screen-sharing program he allegedly tricked Kitboga’s character into downloading, the con man becomes overly excited about a sizable possible reward.

The joke, though, is when Kitboga, who plays an old woman in the movie, inputs the scammer’s wallet address erroneously before transferring all of the money. As a result, the con artist is furious and begins berating Kitboga with a string of foul language.

Notably, the scammer appears to have provided a BTC wallet address hosted by Kraken, therefore allowing the cryptocurrency exchange to identify and flag their activities.

This partnership appears to have been made feasible by Kitboga and Nick Percoco, Kraken’s chief security officer.

On Twitch, Kitboga has 1.2 million followers, while on YouTube, he has 3 million. His videos typically have him playing a cast of technologically ignorant characters while comedically wasting the time of contact center scammers.

By alerting the hosting company where these websites are kept to the scam, he has in some cases also been able to have their questionable websites taken down. “There are con artists taking advantage of folks every day. I call them to waste their time, show people their lies and “script,” provide information when I can and otherwise make fun of a serious problem, according to his YouTube biography.

A new BTC-related “social security scam” that targets victims via email or text message and claims that odd purchases have been made using their bank accounts has been exposed by Kitboga in a video on May 1.

The con artists, however, tell victims who contact the numbers provided that their identities have been stolen and that they must withdraw all of their cash, purchase BTC, and transmit the money to a “secure government wallet.” By claiming to convince their “grandson” to purchase 10,000 BTC and transmit money to the incorrect address, Kitboga clearly enjoyed himself with these con artists.