Buterin Impostor Stampede

Author: Spaceshib

In light of the recent Etherium Merge, Twitter has blown up with impostors of Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Etherium. Not only that, but giveaways are promised to those who choose to interact.

So, The Merge happened and for many people it’s time to pop some champagne and dig into the cake. However, it would seem, scammers have their own definition of festivities. Twitter has recently exploded with reports of “fake Vitaliks” running amok, all intended to impersonate the real V.B. Not only that, but the majority of them are marked with the white verification check, adding to the illusion of being legit.

Wait, fake and verified? What?

The truth of the matter is that a lot of these "Buterin accounts" aren’t exactly “fake." Instead, they were previously owned by real people, hence the verification tick being present. At some point, these accounts must have been hijacked by scammers - hacked and refashioned to resemble Vitalik’s official Twitter handle. Truly, their ingenuity has no bounds!

The most prominent case was of Roberto Cingolani - an Italian minister of ecological transition, whose Twitter suddenly felt the urge to change identity and mantle Buterin. Some sources claim that Vitalik was accused personally of theft, being called “that Russian hacker” in the process.

The V.B. rampage continued, with other users on Twitter reporting this time the Consulate of Indonesia in Mumbai was hacked (or should we say "buterined"?) as well as an Indonesian airline - Citilink.

Of course these aren't the only instances of Buterin impersonation, if the most outstanding in terms of audacity.

Why all the craze?

It’s likely these scammers are eager to capitalize on the recent Merge hype. By impersonating V.B., they are trying to lure unsuspecting victims with promises of giveaways. Already now, some people claim that it's the fake Buterin that shows up being advertised on the trending section of their Twitter.

Since no giveaways were ever mentioned or confirmed by the real Vitalik Buterin, it goes without saying that you should exercise caution and avoid interacting with anything suspicious.

Until then, if you're seeing "a Buterin" next time you log into Twitter, make sure to double-check that it's the real one. The real account has a tag that is @VitalikButerin.