A new crypto scam
Approval management platform Revoke has implemented a solution to counter a new crypto scam, which involves tricking crypto users by revoking “fake approvals” and then hitting them with excessively high transaction fees. On July 9th, Revoke announced that it had received reports of people seeing unknown approval transactions in their transaction history.
Gas tokens used by scammers
In reality, scammers have used what are known as “gas tokens” to make victims believe they have suspicious transaction approvals. Gas tokens were developed when Ethereum network fees started to soar. Users could effectively store cheap gas during periods of low network demand. “This allowed users to mint gas tokens when fees were low, and burn them when fees were high, effectively locking in the lower rate,” explained Revoke.
Revoke’s solution
However, Revoke stated that scammers have created fake gas tokens that they drop with fake approvals that users think they need to revoke. The fraudulent tokens were programmed to generate a lot of gas during the revoked transaction, with the newly minted gas tokens being sent back to the scammers, leaving the victim with high transaction fees. Revoke has now resolved the issue by adding a check that disables approval revocation if there are excessive gas fees. It advised users to ignore the fake approvals: “The best thing to do with these fake approvals/tokens is to ignore them. As long as you don’t interact with them, they can’t steal your funds.”
Platforms like Revoke have urged users to revoke approvals for Multichain following the exploitation of the network for millions of dollars on July 7th. This has given scammers a new avenue to lure victims into approving their fake transaction revocations. For better management of your approvals and increased protection against such scams, consider using preventive tools like cryptoview.io.
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