- A report by Digital Shadows shows that over 100 fake websites relating to Libra have been opened
- Many of these websites copy the official ones using the homographic method
- According to a strategic intelligence analyst at Digital Shadows, some of the fakes are extremely convincing
The countdown is officially on for the launch of the highly anticipated Libra token by Facebook for which the white paper was released in June 2019. There are a number of parties that are involved besides Facebook themselves such as regulatory bodies that are trying to set up structures ahead of the highly-anticipated token launch as well as world governments.
Unfortunately, not all the attention that is surrounding the Libra token is positive as a July 1 report states that over 100 domains have been registered that have some fraudulent affiliation to the stablecoin.
Malware and phishing scams posing as Libra
The information in this report comes courtesy of Digital Shadows, a cyber threat intelligence firm, who say that as of July 2018 their research team found over a hundred domains registered that are related to Libra and several dozen of them also made reference to Calibra, the digital token associated with it. Many of these sites contain malicious content and the firm divided them into two groups. The first group was those who impersonated the official Libra website and the other group were those that promoted scams.
“Instead of relying on media buzz and hype around the brand, these types of scams instead aim to convince victims that they are on a legitimate website, and therefore more likely to trust it with their personal and financial data,” said Alex Guirakhoo, a strategic intelligence analyst at Digital Shadows.
Many sites look indistinguishable from real ones
The websites made sure that as convincing as possible with several websites making use of Greek, Cyrillic and other types of writing to imitate the lettering used on the official Libra website as convincingly as possible.
The report also stated that one of the websites offers visitors a chance to purchase Libra using Ether to enjoy a 25 percent bonus. At least six other websites copied the Libra and Calibra website using the homographic technique and according to Guirakhoo, some of the sites are so convincing that it is nearly impossible to determine which is real and which is fake.
