Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has launched a new campaign aimed at preventing scams in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies. The initiative, called the “Joint Anti-Scam Campaign,” was first rolled out in Hong Kong and aims to help potential victims of scams avoid falling prey to fraudulent activity.
As part of the campaign, Binance collaborated with the Hong Kong Police Force’s Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau to create an “alert and crime prevention message” for Hong Kong residents. When users attempted to make withdrawals, they were subjected to warning messages that provided information about common scams and tips on how to avoid them.
Binance investigated users’ responses to the messages over a four-week period and found that approximately 20.4% of users either decided not to make the withdrawal or investigated further to determine whether the transaction might be a scam. The success of the pilot program has led Binance to plan collaborations with police in other jurisdictions to create tailor-made warning messages for customers outside of Hong Kong.
Phishing and social engineering scams have been a recurring problem for cryptocurrency users. In February, scammers allegedly created a fake version of the ETHDenver convention website, which they used to trick users into giving away their cryptocurrency by calling a function on a malicious contract. In another example, an influential non-fungible token promoter had over $300,000 worth of CryptoPunks removed from his wallet when he was apparently fooled into interacting with a phishing site.
Binance’s Joint Anti-Scam Campaign aims to help users avoid these types of scams by providing them with targeted alerts and resources to educate them about common scams and how to avoid them. The company’s collaboration with law enforcement agencies is an important step in the fight against fraudulent activity in the cryptocurrency space. With the success of the pilot program in Hong Kong, it is hoped that this initiative will be expanded to other jurisdictions and help prevent more users from falling victim to scams.