Scammers target businesses in Venezuela with payments using fake «USDT» tokens
Scammers use tokens with the same name as Tether’s stablecoin, but with no value, to simulate payments and deceive local merchants.
Merchants in Venezuela are being victimized by a fraud scheme that uses fake tokens to simulate payments with the Tether stablecoin (USDT).
The alert was spread on September 15 by Venezuelan businessman and influencer Juan Kassabji, who detailed the modus operandi used by the perpetrators to steal merchandise by taking advantage of the sellers’ lack of technical knowledge about how cryptocurrency networks work.
The main tactic of these malicious actors is to avoid centralized exchange platforms, such as Binance or Bybit. These companies include security mechanisms that automatically filter out and reject illegitimate tokens.
To get around this barrier—according to Kassabji—scammers ask businesses to make transfers exclusively to self-custody wallets, citing well-known apps such as Trust Wallet or MetaMask. When using this type of tool, the responsibility to verify the authenticity of the asset falls entirely on the receiving user.
Once the merchant agrees to operate under these conditions, the attacker sends a token that bears the name «USDT», but which lacks liquidity and whose real market value is nil.
$ZEC $BTC
Scammers use tokens with the same name as Tether’s stablecoin, but with no value, to simulate payments and deceive local merchants.
Merchants in Venezuela are being victimized by a fraud scheme that uses fake tokens to simulate payments with the Tether stablecoin (USDT).
The alert was spread on September 15 by Venezuelan businessman and influencer Juan Kassabji, who detailed the modus operandi used by the perpetrators to steal merchandise by taking advantage of the sellers’ lack of technical knowledge about how cryptocurrency networks work.
The main tactic of these malicious actors is to avoid centralized exchange platforms, such as Binance or Bybit. These companies include security mechanisms that automatically filter out and reject illegitimate tokens.
To get around this barrier—according to Kassabji—scammers ask businesses to make transfers exclusively to self-custody wallets, citing well-known apps such as Trust Wallet or MetaMask. When using this type of tool, the responsibility to verify the authenticity of the asset falls entirely on the receiving user.
Once the merchant agrees to operate under these conditions, the attacker sends a token that bears the name «USDT», but which lacks liquidity and whose real market value is nil.
$ZEC $BTC
