Fraudsters are once again exploiting the buzz around Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok, launching counterfeit tokens in what appears to be a new round of phishing schemes.
On April 21, a wallet associated with former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was sent 90 million fake Grok (GROK) tokens, according to findings from blockchain security firm PeckShield. The firm identified the tokens as “likely a scam,” citing that the deployer used a multisend function to disperse them across several wallets.
Despite growing speculation, Grok—the AI chatbot developed by Musk’s X platform—has no official token and no public plans to create one.
This isn’t the first appearance of fake Grok tokens. A similar scam surfaced in 2023 when a GROK-branded ERC-20 token launched on Ethereum, only to crash over 90% after the creator sold a mere 0.5% of its total supply, data from Bubblemaps revealed.
Cybercriminals often take advantage of trusted brands, social platforms, or well-known figures like Musk to deceive users. In 2024, Meta topped the list as the most imitated brand in phishing attacks, according to email security firm Mailsuite. In the crypto sector, Coinbase was the most impersonated name—although Meta was spoofed more than 25 times as frequently.
Elon Musk Scams on the Rise Again
Fraudulent schemes themed around Elon Musk and AI are spiking again. On April 14, a phony “AI Elon Musk stream” falsely advertising a $20,000 crypto giveaway was flagged by cybersecurity advocate Denis Thomas.
Scam detection site Coinspeedrun reported several new Musk-related memecoins launching on the BNB Smart Chain in recent weeks, indicating the trend is far from over.
One popular scam technique known as “address poisoning” involves tricking users into unknowingly sending funds to lookalike wallet addresses. These phishing attacks have already inflicted over $1 billion in losses across nearly 300 incidents in 2024, according to blockchain security firm CertiK—underscoring the serious threat they pose to the crypto space.
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