Twitter is taking a leaf from Facebook in stepping up efforts to stop the spread of cryptocurrency scams on its platform. The increase in popularity of the cryptocurrency market has contributed to accelerating the emergence of misleading cryptocurrency-related content on the popular microblogging site.

Twitter for their part has confirmed that they are aware of the problem and are taking steps to get ahead of the situation. Earlier in 2018, Facebook placed a ban on advertising related to initial coins offerings (ICOs) and all other cryptocurrency content, as well as binary options.

Twitter: A Hotbed for Crypto Scams

There is a multitude of cryptocurrency scams being posted on the Twitter platform, from the sophisticated to the downright ridiculous. Kraken, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange platforms in the world recently took to Twitter to educate people on the many strategies being used by crypto-fraudsters.

Kraken gave a detailed list of some of the ways in which cybercriminals steal cryptocurrencies online as well as to defraud others of the crypto holdings. In what can only be described as an odd twist, the verified Kraken Twitter account was banned afterward.

In February, a cryptocurrency scam that made use of a Twitter bot to defraud people to the tune of $40,000 in only a few hours. Fraudsters are in the habit of cloning the Twitter handles of famous names in the industry and using these clone accounts to defraud people of their crypto holdings.

To make matters even worse, some of these fraudulent accounts even have the “blue tick” attached to their handles which means that these accounts are verified accounts. Commenting on this development, Jack Dorsey, the co-founder, and CEO of Twitter said the social media platform was looking into the issue.

He declared that steps were being taken to fix the problem of so-called verified accounts being engaging in crypto scams.

Steps Taken So Far

A Twitter spokesperson revealed that measures were being implemented to prevent suspected crypto scam accounts from interacting with users on the platform in a deceptive manner. Concerning the @Bitcoin Twitter that had been restricted, a statement was issued by the microblogging site stating that the account had been restricted.

No further explanation was given as to why restrictions had been placed on the account. However, a visit to the Twitter handle in question shows that whatever restrictions were put on it have apparently been lifted.

Earlier today, according to Bloomberg a visit to the handle would have shown a message stating that the account had been restricted due to some “unusual activity” from the account.

There seems to be a lot of focus being paid to crypto-related handles. On March 6, Cornell University associate professor, Emin Gün Sirer, decried the sad state of affairs brought about by cryptocurrency scams on Twitter.

He said that it was becoming increasingly difficult to have meaningful conversations on Twitter without some random crypto spammer butting in and trying to sell some fraudulent scheme or the other. Responding to the complaint, Jack Dorsey, himself a big fan of bitcoin declared that the Twitter team was on top of the situation.

Feature image by Fantasy