Reddit User Gets Scammed After Trying to Convert SAI to DAI Jonathan Ganor 2019-12-18 09:12:59 911 views

User Reports Loss of $14K After Clicking A Malicious Link

There have been plenty of scams taking advantage of some of the privacy features of cryptocurrency in one way or another. There have been wallet Ponzi scams, such as PlusToken and Ponzi cryptocurrencies such as Bitconnect. Other popular scams fooled users into sending funds to the wrong address, which is a common practice with Bitcoin QR generators on Google and shortened links.

It appears that the latter was the type of scam that caught one unsuspecting Reddit user.

Reddit User Loses $14K While Converting SAI to DAI

One very Unlucky Reddit user revealed his experience on the popular ETHtrader sub-Reddit.

In the somewhat long post, the user explained that he wanted to convert his SAI tokens to DAI tokens. After he searched for the term in Google, he clicked the second result which was a Medium post.

Unfortunately, the trader didn't bother to do the somewhat standard safety procedure before sending out cryptocurrencies. He did not confirm the address, nor did he initially send a small amount first.

The problem didn't lie with the medium post, but apparently with the configurable redirectable link. It appears that the link was tampered with although it currently redirects to the correct site.

As per the post:

"Great... I like Medium, so hit the 2nd link. Follow the instructions... not performing any of my usual due diligence of checking links and sending small amounts first etc. I guess I just thought of this as an "upgrade" and not a sending of tokens... so my mind wasn't where it needed to be. I was looking to convert to DAI and then sell on Coinbase back to ETH as DAI had a higher 24 hr volume compared to SAI.

Waited for my DAI to arrive which it didn't after about 20 minutes... started to get worried... realised the site was a scam, and I should have gone via makerdao site direct.

An expensive $14.1k lesson that I won't soon forget... I know it was ultimately my own stupid fault, but really didn't expect a scam article to be up for so long on medium AND for it to rank so high on the google search, my tiredness plus the above just made for a perfect storm of circumstances. I haven't had any issues with Crypto since getting into the space in 2017... what an absolute pity...

Just thought I'd share my pain, and hopefully a PSA for others to avoid a similar situation."

It seems that even experienced traders can get fooled by underhanded and known tactics such as phishing. As always, be sure to check that links are official, that the address is correct, & send a small amount before you send over a large amount of cryptocurrencies.

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