Reports are circulating on social media of multiple accounts posing as prominent blockchain investigator ZachXBT, known for publicly exposing fraudulent cryptocurrency projects, following the deactivation of his official account.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Michael Khekoian, partnership director at Web3 security firm Wallet Guard, pointed out to his 12,700 followers that the prominent blockchain investigator is being impersonated to scam people.
ATTENTION
— MichaelK.eth (@MichaelKdcl) December 23, 2023
keep your eyes peeled there are already fake @zachxbt accounts trying to scam people in the form of offering assistance pic.twitter.com/OjiacLZZJ1
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Khekoian clarified that following the deactivation of the official ZachXBT profile today, several fraudulent accounts emerged.
“In the case of ZachXBT, multiple accounts currently exist that mimic his display name, and use the pre-tense of helping the user in order to manipulate an already unfortunate situation to their advantage.”
He additionally cautioned users to remain vigilant, emphasizing that numerous accounts imitating popular profiles such as ZachXBT frequently aim to deceive users by enticing them to click on phishing links and engage with scams.
On X, a user using the name 'Nathan.eth' posted a screenshot on Telegram, asserting that ZachXBT had deactivated his account for an "unspecified amount of time."
ZachXBT is the best guy in this space that I know of. He has exposed and investigated many 'Scam' and 'Rug Pull' projects!
— Nathann.eth (@0xxNathan) December 24, 2023
If you can't contribute positively to this space, you shouldn't blame him because he can't help you. He deserves respect!
Merry Christmas, ZachXBT! pic.twitter.com/6U4whg1rqa
Earlier this year, ZachXBT was front and centre of a legal battle following his diligent investigative work into Jeffrey Huang, better known on Twitter as MachiBigBrother.
On June 16, Huang tweeted that he had filed a defamation lawsuit against ZachXBT, accusing him of damaging his reputation through false allegations.
While Huang didn’t specify those allegations, in June 2022, an article was published by ZachXBT titled: 22,000 ETH Embezzled and Over Ten Projects Failed: The Story of Machi Big Brother (Jeff Huang).
Related: Crypto thief steals $4.4M in a day as toll rises from LastPass breach
Just two days after the lawsuit was filed, ZachXBT received over $1 million in donations from the crypto community to pay for his legal fees
Donors included former CEO of crypto exchange Binance Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, co-founder of crypto exchange Kraken, and Polygon's founder Sandeep Nailwal.
Cointelegraph reached out to ZachXBT for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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