Coinspeaker
Hamster Kombat Becomes Playground for Scammers
Scammers have started exploiting the Telegram-based game Hamster Kombat for their selfish gain. They now explore several tactics to attack players including the introduction of phishing links, fake airdrops, and unrealistic giveaways.
Hamster Kombat Scammers Exolores Fake Airdrops and Websites
Hamster Kombat, which bagged Bybit listing recently, rose to popularity in the twinkling of an eye. As widely reported, its meteoric rise sparked excitement amongst crypto and Web 3.0 enthusiasts.
Barely 90 days after it entered the limelight, the game captured the attention of more than 239 million users. On a daily basis, Hamster Kombat adds up to 4-5 million new players. Not only did this growth get players excited, but they were concerned as well as.
It became more intriguing when players began to experience sophisticated phishing attacks from scammers who were taking advantage of the game’s viral popularity. Even Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, noted that:
“The game’s meteoric growth has unfortunately attracted both players and fraudsters.”
The bad actors behind these exploits are focused on stealing players’ personal information, gaining access to the accounts, and siphoning their cryptocurrencies. Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky identified the trend of the scammers amidst reports from players.
According to Kaspersky’s team member and security expert Olga Svistunova, the Hamster Kombat scammers usually trick their victims into unknowingly taking potentially self-harming actions. Unfortunately, this marks one of the most common forms of their attacks. Players are promised game coin conversions to rubles by these scammers.
The process leads unsuspecting victims to phishing links that require users’ Telegram credentials. Once the bad actors secure these details, they immediately break into their victim’s account and steal their data. They even go as far as engaging in blackmail and sending fraudulent messages.
Another method that these scammers have explored is the promise of fake airdrops. Although this is not an unusual method, the attractiveness of free cryptocurrencies has not stopped crypto enthusiasts from falling victim every time. This method also redirects players to phishing links that require their Telegram or crypto wallet credentials.
More sophisticated is the creation of fake websites by these scammers. They make promises of free coins to users after which they are assured of “fraudulent commission payments”. At the end of the day, it all ends up as a scam.
Telegram to Hit 1 Billion Users
This gloomy situation with Hamster Kombat has not deterred Telegram from experiencing more growth. The popular social media messaging app recently confirmed that it has achieved a significant milestone of 950 million monthly active users after 11 years of service.
Durov expects that the platform will hit the 1 billion user milestone by the end of this year.
Other games in the Telegram ecosystem are demonstrating excellent performances. Notcoin has also seen a meteoric rise in a short time. One of its recent achievements was the launch of the Telegram Gaming Accelerator in collaboration with prominent analytics firm Helika.
