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Chinese officials have detained an individual suspected of phishing fraud connected to the StarkNet (STRK) AirDrop. The suspect is accused of submitting over 40 fake Early Community Member Program (ECMP) AirDrop forms using other people’s identities.
Tokens Converted into $91,000 Worth of USDT
The suspect, identified as Lan Mou, was detained on April 25 in Guangdong Province, following the seizure of a computer and two mobile phones by the police.
Investigations revealed that the suspect originally withdrew over 40,000 STRK tokens belonging to victims into his own wallet. According to local media, after the AirDrop, the suspect transferred the stolen STRK tokens to an OKX exchange wallet and converted them into Tether (USDT) valued at $91,000.
Although fraud and phishing attacks are common in the cryptocurrency world, the scale of the phishing fraud observed in this case, especially the AirDrop aspect, was a first of its kind. A cryptocurrency AirDrop typically serves as a marketing tool targeting a protocol’s early users.
StarkNet (STRK) AirDrop Sparked Debates
As known, the StarkNet Foundation, supporting the Ethereum Layer 2 solution StarkNet network, distributed 700 million STRK tokens via AirDrop on February 20. The distribution rewarded various stakeholders including Ethereum solo and liquid stakers, StarkNet developers, users, and projects beyond the Web3 ecosystem.
The AirDrop attracted significant interest, and the first 45 million STRK tokens were claimed in wallets in less than 90 minutes. However, there were controversies related to the eligibility list, especially due to the high number of AirDrop hunters. These actors, often referred to as professional AirDrop hunters, farm upcoming AirDrops for financial gain. Allegedly, about 701,544 out of 1.3 million eligible wallet addresses were controlled by AirDrop hunters linked to duplicated or renamed GitHub accounts.
While the StarkNet AirDrop recorded significant issues caused by AirDrop hunters and the exploitation of gaps in cryptocurrency distribution mechanisms, it was not the first case. The widely publicized Arbitrum (ARB) AirDrop was also targeted by AirDrop hunters, with $3.3 million worth of ARB consolidated in two wallet addresses controlled by them.
