The LEGO Group’s official website was hijacked by crypto scammers to promote a fake cryptocurrency.
The fake ad for “LEGO Coin” promised “secret rewards” for those who purchased the coin, and included a “buy now” button that led to a phishing site.
The incident took place at 3am CET, but LEGO’s Danish headquarters quickly removed the post, which only ran for about 75 minutes. The toymaker confirmed that no customer accounts have been compromised and that the cause has been identified and measures are being implemented to prevent another attack.
A popular scam
“On October 5, 2024 (October 4 evening in the US), an unauthorized banner briefly appeared on LEGO.com,” the company’s official statement said. “It was quickly removed and the issue has been resolved. No user accounts were compromised and customers can continue shopping as normal. The cause has been identified and we are implementing measures to prevent this from happening again.”
The ad appeared as a banner on the Lego site, which directed visitors to a third-party marketplace where they could purchase “LEGO tokens” using the popular cryptocurrency Ethereum.
Fake cryptocurrencies are often used by fraudsters to cheat unsuspecting victims out of their money, with advertisements, messages or social media posts responsible for introducing almost half of scams.
These usually come in the form of ‘investment opportunities’, where victims are encouraged to join fake cryptocurrencies and buy in as much as possible, with some even showing fake ‘profits’ or money earned. The scam comes about when victims try to withdraw their money but have to pay extortionate fees to do so.
According to the FBI, this type of fraud stole as much as $4.57 billion in 2023, costing more money than ransomware that year. This has continued into 2024, with the average amount stolen per incident increasing by almost 80%, mainly due to the success of Bitcoin.
Technology companies have recently joined forces in the fight against scams, providing tools and knowledge to protect customers from fraud. Tech Against Scams has pledged to share information and help people reduce the number of successful scams.
Via Engadget