A phishing scam targeting the Stargate Snapshot platform resulted in significant financial losses.

A Discord Moderator of LayerZero, the underlying network of Stargate, revealed that a scammer effectively carried out a deceptive proposal vote, utilizing a phishing link to manipulate users into staking STG tokens.

Scammer Misleads Token Holders in Fake Proposal Vote

The scam unfolded on the Stargate platform, governed by its token holders, who participate in voting on various proposals concerning the protocol. The scammer exploited this process by creating a fake proposal, misleading over 1,000 users into participating in the vote.

Following the incident, the scammer was able to profit over $43,000. This figure was confirmed by PeckShieldAlert, a security entity, after closely tracking the scammer’s digital activities and wallet transactions.

#PeckShieldAlert A Discord Mod on #LayerZero has reported that a scammer who introduced a phishing link within a proposal vote on the #Stargate Snapshot platform, enticing users to stake $STG tokens.
Over 1K users took part in the vote, resulting in a loss of ~$43K pic.twitter.com/ShmCvLLOJ1

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) December 4, 2023

PeckShieldAlert is also actively tracing the scammer’s digital footprint with efforts underway to identify links to the scammer’s wallet addresses and related transactions, which could provide vital leads for further investigation.

The Stargate platform typically involves a process where STG token holders submit proposals. These proposals, which include Core and Protocol Proposals, undergo a voting process by holders of veSTG voting power. Proposals with positive sentiment can then be submitted to Snapshot for governance votes.

Rising Trend of Discord Scams

This scam is part of a growing trend of attacks on Discord. Discord has been increasingly targeted by hackers who exploit its open nature to scam users out of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and money.

Notable incidents in the past include attacks on the Discord channels of OpenSea and Yuga Labs’s Bored Ape Yacht Club, as well as the compromise of the Mee6 Discord bot, spreading scam messages across various crypto project channels.

The most common scams on Discord are phishing, where hackers create fake versions of popular websites, and giveaway scams, where fake accounts promise free products or services in exchange for money.

This is due to the rising popularity of cryptocurrency and NFT projects, which often use Discord for community engagement, making the platform a prime target for such fraudulent activities.

After the Stargate Snapshot platform incident, Stargate has yet to issue an official statement. The crypto community is advised to avoid clicking links on their discord or snapshot as we await further developments on the story.