Binance Chief Communications Officer (CCO) Patrick Hillmann became a victim of impersonation. A group of hackers managed to create an AI hologram based on Hillmann. The hologram was used to scam the representatives of some projects that believed that Hillmann was helping them to get listed on the exchange.
By adopting more technologies and discovering and perfecting more scamming methods, the impostors keep finding easier and easier ways to trick their victims. Last week, Hillman reported a new way, in which the scammers used to perform their schemes, using his identity to present fraudulent listing operations. Hackers used an AI hologram, a deepfake impersonating Hillmann, in Zoom meetings to deceive several cryptocurrency project representatives. The AI was convincing enough to make them believe that their projects were being considered for listing on Binance.
The scheme was only discovered once the project members had contacted Hillmann to send him their regards for helping them with the listing. However, Hillmann had no connection with the Binance listing process, nor did he know about the meetings taking place. Although he did not disclose which particular projects have been scammed, or the total sum of money paid to the scammers.
Hillmann alerted the public about the rise of this impersonation scam on multiple social media platforms, stating that:
“Beyond this latest incident, there’s been a recent spike in hackers pretending to be Binance employees and executives on platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, etc. We are prepared to defend our users and our ecosystem.”
The project listing proposal on Binance is only available via the listing application page and does not include any third-party users or organizations. Additionally, Binance does not apply any fixed listing fee to the new projects. Binance explains the listing fee value as follows:
“There is no fixed number. Just propose a number you are comfortable with. Show your willingness to contribute to social impact.”
At last, Binance collects the fees and donates them to the Binance Charity which is a blockchain-tracked charity organization.
