AB Finance Airdrop Scam
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At some point on August 25th of 2021, millions of Binance smart chain addresses received a mysterious ABFin token, which appeared to be valuable and directed them to abfin.org. On that website, AB Finance claimed to be a regulated company and that all users had to do to sell their tokens was to unlock them. The unlocking process only required users to give full control over their wallet to the website, at which point any other tokens in their wallet could be withdrawn. The website appears to have subsequently upgraded to look more similar to PancakeSwap, which likely enticed more users to attempt the swap. It's unclear how many users were affected, and whether any further investigation was performed to attempt to recover funds.
This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
About AB Finance
"ABFIN Token Finance is a regulated [c]ompany. All you need to do in order to exchange your ABFIN Token is going through easy step by clicking on the Claim ABFIN Token Button, after this is done, you will be able to Exchange them to BNB in PancakeSwap."
The Reality
"Today I'm bringing you a token called AB Finance, which you probably received eight million, and you're trying to sell it on PancakeSwap and it doesn't work. So, this is a scam. Let's take a look at the token first. As you can see, one million people - one million four hundred thousand people received this token. Everyone seems to be having this almost nine million tokens."[12]
"As you can see, uh, there is, uh, the burn address has 100 percent of the tokens. One of the - this is the scammers address has 99 percent, and everyone seems to have, you know, that - this is more than 100 percent, so. And if you add together that a million people received these tokens you can see that it's way more than 100 percent in total. So, when you're trying to unlock this then, it tells you to, tells you to go to this website called abfin.org, but this is redirected to abfin.me. Which this is the website."[12]
Scamdrop warning: [9]
What Happened
The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.
| Date | Event | Description |
|---|---|---|
| August 25th, 2021 | Main Event | Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here. |
| August 7th, 2021 11:30:07 AM MDT | YouTube Video Warning | Altcoin Detective publishes a YouTube video about the AB Finance token airdrop, which highlights that trading of the tokens is not possible and warns users not to attempt to connect their wallets with the malicious website[12]. |
| August 27th, 2021 7:53:42 PM MDT | Scamdrop Warning | The Scamdrop service publishes a warning specifically about the ABFin token airdrop[13]. |
Technical Details
This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?
"As you can see, uh, there is, uh, the burn address has 100 percent of the tokens. One of the - this is the scammers address has 99 percent, and everyone seems to have, you know, that - this is more than 100 percent, so. And if you add together that a million people received these tokens you can see that it's way more than 100 percent in total. So, when you're trying to unlock this then, it tells you to, tells you to go to this website called abfin.org, but this is redirected to abfin.me. Which this is the website."[12]
"The scam only works if you click on this button, right. There is a pop-up and you unlock the wallet. When you do this, you authorize the scammer to take other tokens from your wallet and and take it from you. So whatever you do, don't click this and you know, either MetaMask will pop up and and ask for authorization. Once you do that, you are in trouble." "This is the only way they can take money from you."[12]
Total Amount Lost
The total amount lost is unknown.
How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?
Immediate Reactions
How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?
"From that one million four hundred thousand addresses that received this airdrop, nobody was able to trade the token on poocoin, so it's not possible to get rid of, you know, get rid of the tokens from your wallet. It's not possible to buy or sell this token. So what you can do is just leave it alone in your wallet. Don't go to this website and try to unlock your wallet."[12]
Ultimate Outcome
"From that one million four hundred thousand addresses that received this airdrop, nobody was able to trade the token on poocoin, so it's not possible to get rid of, you know, get rid of the tokens from your wallet. It's not possible to buy or sell this token. So what you can do is just leave it alone in your wallet. Don't go to this website and try to unlock your wallet."[12]
Total Amount Recovered
There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.
What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?
Ongoing Developments
What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?
General Prevention Policies
When self-custodying, users have a responsibility to always take great care with any approvals they make. Approving full permissions to a website is usually not advisable. Another method of reducing risk would be to move the majority of funds to a fully offline wallet which is not interacted with.
Individual Prevention Policies
No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.
For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.
Platform Prevention Policies
Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.
For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.
Regulatory Prevention Policies
No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.
For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.
References
- ↑ Phisher Watch Airdrop Scams (Jul 2, 2022)
- ↑ ABFIN.org (ABFIN) Token Airdrop - Scamdrop Warning - YouTube (Jul 2, 2022)
- ↑ AB FINANCE (Jan 5, 2023)
- ↑ ABFINANCE (Jan 5, 2023)
- ↑ Careful for the scam ABFIN.org : CryptoCurrency (Jan 5, 2023)
- ↑ ABFIN.org( ABFIN ) info, ABFIN.org( ABFIN ) chart, market cap, and price | TheBitTimes.Com (Jan 5, 2023)
- ↑ Fake_Phishing73 | Address 0xb8a9704d48c3e3817cc17bc6d350b00d7caaecf6 | BscScan (Jan 5, 2023)
- ↑ Online EVM Bytecode Decompiler (Jan 5, 2023)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 ABFIN.org (ABFIN) Token Airdrop - Scamdrop Warning - CoinMarketBag (Jan 5, 2023)
- ↑ AB Finance Homepage Archive August 24th, 2021 10:54:22 PM MDT (Jan 13, 2023)
- ↑ AB Finance Homepage Archive September 2nd, 2021 9:06:40 AM MDT (Nov 24, 2023)
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 Altcoin Detective - How to check if your wallet is hacked by an airdrop or your tokens are SAFU? - YouTube (Jan 5, 2023)
- ↑ ABFIN.org (ABFIN) Token Airdrop – Scamdrop Warning Archive September 1st, 2021 6:23:25 AM MDT (Nov 24, 2023)