Scam Alert: Cardano Founder Reveals Interaction With Fake 'Anatoly'

Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson has busted the schemes of a fraudster who tried to impersonate Solana Founder Anatoly Yakovenko. Taking to his official X account, Charles Hoskinson shared a recorded chat trail detailing how he interacted with "Anatoly," who asked him to visit a website to claim some tokens.

The conversation started when the fake Anatoly poked Hoskinson, asking if he had claimed the 20% reward on his TrueUSD balance in his wallet. Rather than block the scammer directly, the Cardano founder played along, asking him what steps he needed to take to claim the said rewards.

The fake Anatoly then asked him to visit a website that is a scam to click on "Claim Reflections" and to follow the subsequent instructions. Things took a new and interesting turn when Hoskinson began to query the scammer as to why he could not claim the rewards directly from his wallet. The conversation showed how scammers are not as smart as they typically think, as his responses to Hoskinson’s probe showed why the whole offer was a scam.

One intriguing aspect of this fake Anatoly was that the account used for the chat was verified, adding a seeming layer of legitimacy to the impersonated identity.

Crypto scam and awareness campaign

There is growing concern about scams in the crypto ecosystem. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) tools has notably complicated the whole fraud game. Deepfake videos impersonating top crypto personalities like Hoskinson himself and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse often proliferate in the broader industry.

There have been vocal campaigns against crypto scams as entities like Ripple Labs Inc. try to educate their communities on the antics of the scammers. The video shared by Hoskinson is another subtle way to educate his followers, as most interactions with scammers typically take the same format, where the right probing questions can expose the true intent of the fraudsters.