Hackers Target Orbiter Finance Discord Server With Fake Airdrop Scam

3 mins
Updated by Geraint Price
Join our Trading Community on Telegram

In Brief

  • Cyber scams, especially around DeFi, are almost daily affairs in 2023
  • The bad actors utilized the trend of the airdrop season to trick users into connecting their wallets to a phishing website.
  • Eventually, they stole users’ funds.
  • promo

Various community members have reported a loss of their non-fungible tokens (NFTs), stablecoins, and other crypto tokens due to a hack in Orbiter Finance’s Discord server.

Cyber scams, especially around decentralized finance (DeFi), are almost daily affairs in 2023. Hackers posing as media representatives tricked the project and made them click on a phishing link.

Phishing Announcement in Orbiter Finance’s Discord Server

Hackers published a fake Discord announcement on Orbiter Finance’s server earlier on Thursday. Bad actors capitalized on airdrop season to trick users into connecting their wallets to a phishing website. Eventually, they stole users’ funds.

The project informed its community through a Twitter thread not to trust anything on its Discord server. 

Orbiter Finance is a decentralized bridge that supports cross-rollup transfers between Ethereum and other Layer 2 blockchains such as zkSync and Arbitrum.

Orbiter Finance announcing they have been hacked.
Source: Twitter

Community Loses Funds

The fake announcement remained on the server for over an hour, by which time the damage was done. Community members expressed frustration about trusting the project and losing funds to a scam.

Learn more about crypto scams and how to stay safe here.

While there is no exact estimate of the amount lost, various users took it to Twitter and reported the damage they suffered. A Twitter user lost their entire USDC balance on the Polygon chain, and another reported losing $4,000.

Apart from stablecoins, another user reported losing 1,300 Arbitrum (ARB) tokens worth approximately $1,950 as of writing.

Twitter user, @5poob5, lost four Milady NFTs to the phishing website. According to OpenSea data, he acquired all four NFTs for approximately 17.069 Ethereum (ETH). According to current market rates, those are worth around $31,748.

How Orbiter Finance Become Victim to Hack?

Orbiter Finance updated that someone pretending to be a team member of one of the crypto outlets reached out, wanting to publish an article about the project. They shared the link to a form that asked for basic information.

After submitting the form that now seems to be the cause of the hack, the team discovered that they could not log in to their Discord account. The scammers banned moderators and started promoting fraudulent websites.

Yesterday, another DeFi project, Pika Protocol, became a victim to hackers using a similar methodology.

The scam in space has grown so rampant that a normal search of the “Orbiter Finance” project shows a list full of fake accounts. The accounts have also jacked up their follower count, which might trick users who do not do proper due diligence.

Scam Orbiter Finance social media accounts.
Source: Twitter

Got something to say about Orbiter Finance or anything else? Write to us or join the discussion on our Telegram channel. You can also catch us on TikTok, Facebook, or Twitter.

For BeInCrypto’s latest Bitcoin (BTC) analysis, click here.

Top crypto projects in the US | October 2024
Exodus Exodus Explore
Coinrule Coinrule Explore
Uphold Uphold Explore
Coinbase Coinbase Explore
Chain GPT Chain GPT Explore
Top crypto projects in the US | October 2024
Exodus Exodus Explore
Coinrule Coinrule Explore
Uphold Uphold Explore
Coinbase Coinbase Explore
Chain GPT Chain GPT Explore
Top crypto projects in the US | October 2024

Trusted

Disclaimer

In adherence to the Trust Project guidelines, BeInCrypto is committed to unbiased, transparent reporting. This news article aims to provide accurate, timely information. However, readers are advised to verify facts independently and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content. Please note that our Terms and ConditionsPrivacy Policy, and Disclaimers have been updated.

Harsh.png
Harsh Notariya
Harsh Notariya is an Editorial Standards Lead at BeInCrypto, who also writes about various topics, including decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), tokenization, crypto airdrops, decentralized finance (DeFi), meme coins, and altcoins. Before joining BeInCrypto, he was a community consultant at Totality Corp, specializing in the metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Additionally, Harsh was a blockchain content writer and researcher at Financial Funda, where he created...
READ FULL BIO
Sponsored
Sponsored