How to recognize phishing scams like the Trust Wallet scam?

What is Trust Wallet scam?

Trust Wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet allowing users to send, receive and store Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies. The phishing website described in this article claims that users can earn Shiba Inu cryptocurrency for free. The purpose of this scam is to trick Trust Wallet users into providing their passphrases.

Trust Wallet scam in detail

This Trust Wallet scam website is promoted through a phishing email claiming that a Trust Wallet account has not yet been verified. It encourages recipients to verify their accounts via the "Verify your wallet" button or the provided website link. A screenshot of this phishing email is provided below.

The provided links open a fake Trust Wallet website asking to enter passphrases. A Trust Wallet passphrase is used to recover misplaced, damaged, stolen, or otherwise inaccessible wallets. By entering that passphrase on this phishing site, users would provide scammers access to their wallets and most likely lose all their crypto.

Threat Summary:

Name	Trust Wallet crypto scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Trust Wallet users can earn Shiba Inu tokens for free
Disguise	Legitimate Trust Wallet website
Related Domain	trust-shibawallet.web[.]app, axie-infinity-shard[.]xyz, trustcryptowallet[.]net, configvalidation.hopto[.]org
Detection Names	Avira (Phishing), Emsisoft (Phishing), ESET-NOD32 (Phishing), Fortinet (Phishing), Lionic (Phishing), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Symptoms	Trust Wallet cannot be accessed.
Distribution methods	Phishing emails, compromised websites, rogue online pop-up ads, potentially unwanted applications.
Damage	Loss of Trust Wallet accounts, cryptocurrency loss.
Malware Removal (Windows)	To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. ▼ Download Combo Cleaner To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

Crypto scams in general

There are plenty of crypto scams on the Internet. Most of them are used to trick unsuspecting people into sending cryptocurrency to scammers or providing access to their crypto wallets. Examples of similar scams are "Ripple Giveaway", "SAFEMOON Giveaway", and "Polkadot Giveaway". These scams can be promoted via potentially unwanted apps (PUAs).

How did potentially unwanted applications install on my computer?

PUAs get installed through installers for other programs, fake installers, deceptive advertisements. The installers mentioned above have "Custom", "Advanced", or similar settings. These settings have to be changed to avoid unwanted installations. Pretty often, users install programs bundled with PUAs without changing those settings.

Fake installers get downloaded from untrustworthy pages. Typically, those pages use deceptive methods to trick users into downloading and using fake installers. Deceptive ads can download or install unwanted programs only if they are designed to run certain scripts (and users click on them).

How to avoid installation of potentially unwanted applications?

Do not use unofficial pages, third-party downloaders, installers, Peer-to-Peer networks, and similar sources, tools to download or install programs. Download files and apps only from official pages and check their downloaders and installers for unwanted apps. Also, avoid clicking on advertisements showing up on questionable sites.

If your computer is already infected with PUAs, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate them.

The appearance of Trust Wallet phishing website (GIF):

Text in this page:

How to Earn SHIBA Using Trust Wallet?
Shiba Coin (SHIB) has emerged as one of the leading digital assets in the crypto markets.
Complete the form to start earning SHIBA tokens for FREE today.

How long are you a member of Trust Wallet?
less than 1 month
6 months
1 year
more than 1 year

Fill in your Trust Wallet Recovery Phrase
respect reading change giant maniacal underwear watch skillful plucky picayune impair heave

According to Privacy International, Trust Wallet will not collect, store nor share Your Personal Data in anyway!

Screenshot of the phishing email used to promote this scam:

Text in this email:

Subject: Our system has shown that your Trust wallet has not yet been verified

Trust Wallet

Our system has shown that your Trust wallet has not yet been verified. This verification can be done easily via the page below.

Due to the new update of the NFT's, all unverified accounts will be suspended on Monday, November 15, 2021. We're sorry for any inconvenience we cause with this, but please keep in mind that our intention is to keep our customers safe and happy.

Thank your for understanding.

Verify your wallet

If the button above doesn't work, try the page below.

-

For further assistance with this issue, please contact our support team here.

Additional examples of Trust Wallet-themed scam websites:

Yet another example of Trust Wallet-themed spam email promoting a phishing site:

Text presented within:

Subject: Your wallet will be suspended!

 

Verify Your Wallet

Our system has shown that your main wallet has not yet been verified by us, this verification can be done easily via the button below. All unverified accounts will be suspended within 48 hours.

We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by this, but please note that our intention is to keep our customers safe and happy. Safety is and remains our priority.

Verify Your Wallet

This is a service message Privacy policy.
Trust Wallet 2021

Another example of Trust Wallet-themed spam email used to promote a phishing site:

Text presented within:

Subject: Withdrawals temporarily suspended

 

Trust Wallet

The identity of your wallet has not yet been verified

Dear customer,

We have detected that our system has determined that your wallet has not yet been verified. In order to protect the safety of your assets, withdrawals have been temporarily suspended for your Trust Wallet account.

Our identity verification is an important part of your crypto trading journey. Also known as Know Your Customer (KYC), it refers to the process of identifying the users to prevent fraud, money laundering, other illicit activity, and to enhance account security.

As a security measure, we require additional confirmation before allowing access to your Trust Wallet on our platform.

Verify your wallet

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for using Trust Wallet.

Trust Wallet Support

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Quick menu:

• What is Trust Wallet scam?
• STEP 1. Uninstall deceptive applications using Control Panel.
• STEP 2. Remove rogue extensions from Google Chrome.
• STEP 3. Remove potentially unwanted plug-ins from Mozilla Firefox.
• STEP 4. Remove rogue extensions from Safari.
• STEP 5. Remove rogue plug-ins from Microsoft Edge.

Removal of potentially unwanted applications:

Windows 11 users:

Right-click on the Start icon, select Apps and Features. In the opened window search for the application you want to uninstall, after locating it, click on the three vertical dots and select Uninstall.

Windows 10 users:

Right-click in the lower left corner of the screen, in the Quick Access Menu select Control Panel. In the opened window choose Programs and Features.

Windows 7 users:

Click Start (Windows Logo at the bottom left corner of your desktop), choose Control Panel. Locate Programs and click Uninstall a program.

macOS (OSX) users:

Click Finder, in the opened screen select Applications. Drag the app from the Applications folder to the Trash (located in your Dock), then right click the Trash icon and select Empty Trash.

In the uninstall programs window, look for any suspicious/recently-installed applications, select these entries and click "Uninstall" or "Remove".

After uninstalling the potentially unwanted application, scan your computer for any remaining unwanted components or possible malware infections. To scan your computer, use recommended malware removal software.

Remove rogue extensions from Internet browsers:

Video showing how to remove potentially unwanted browser add-ons:

Remove malicious extensions from Google Chrome:

Click the Chrome menu icon  (at the top right corner of Google Chrome), select "More tools" and click "Extensions". Locate all recently-installed suspicious browser add-ons and remove them.

Optional method:

If you continue to have problems with removal of the trust wallet crypto scam, reset your Google Chrome browser settings. Click the Chrome menu icon  (at the top right corner of Google Chrome) and select Settings. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen. Click the Advanced… link.

After scrolling to the bottom of the screen, click the Reset (Restore settings to their original defaults) button.

In the opened window, confirm that you wish to reset Google Chrome settings to default by clicking the Reset button.

Remove malicious plugins from Mozilla Firefox:

Click the Firefox menu (at the top right corner of the main window), select "Add-ons". Click on "Extensions", in the opened window remove all recently-installed suspicious browser plug-ins.

Optional method:

Computer users who have problems with trust wallet crypto scam removal can reset their Mozilla Firefox settings.

Open Mozilla Firefox, at the top right corner of the main window, click the Firefox menu, in the opened menu, click Help.

Select Troubleshooting Information.

In the opened window, click the Refresh Firefox button.

In the opened window, confirm that you wish to reset Mozilla Firefox settings to default by clicking the Refresh Firefox button.

Remove malicious extensions from Safari:

Make sure your Safari browser is active, click Safari menu, and select Preferences....

In the opened window click Extensions, locate any recently installed suspicious extension, select it and click Uninstall.

Optional method:

Make sure your Safari browser is active and click on Safari menu. From the drop down menu select Clear History and Website Data...

In the opened window select all history and click the Clear History button.

Remove malicious extensions from Microsoft Edge:

Click the Edge menu icon  (at the upper-right corner of Microsoft Edge), select "Extensions". Locate all recently-installed suspicious browser add-ons and click "Remove" below their names.

Optional method:

If you continue to have problems with removal of the trust wallet crypto scam, reset your Microsoft Edge browser settings. Click the Edge menu icon  (at the top right corner of Microsoft Edge) and select Settings.

In the opened settings menu select Reset settings.

Select Restore settings to their default values. In the opened window, confirm that you wish to reset Microsoft Edge settings to default by clicking the Reset button.

• If this did not help, follow these alternative instructions explaining how to reset the Microsoft Edge browser.

Summary:

Commonly, adware or potentially unwanted applications infiltrate Internet browsers through free software downloads. Note that the safest source for downloading free software is via developers' websites only. To avoid installation of adware, be very attentive when downloading and installing free software. When installing previously-downloaded free programs, choose the custom or advanced installation options – this step will reveal any potentially unwanted applications listed for installation together with your chosen free program.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How to recognize a cryptocurrency giveaway or similar scam?

Typically, crypto giveaways scams offer to send a certain amount of cryptocurrency and receive more in return. The Trust Wallet scam offers to earn Shiba Inu tokens for free.

What is the purpose Trust Wallet crypto scam?

The purpose of this scam is to hijack crypto wallets and drain them. Scammers behind this scam attempt to trick users into providing their Trust Wallet passphrases.

I have entered my Trust Wallet passphrase. What should I do?

It is advisable to report this scam and contact the Trust Wallet support team.

Why do I encounter such scams?

Pretty often, such scams are promoted through websites that users do not visit on purpose. Those pages get opened through present malicious applications, other dubious pages, or advertisements. Trust Wallet scam is promoted using phishing emails.

Will Combo Cleaner protect me from phishing websites?

Combo Cleaner is designed to scan every single website you visit, and it is capable of detecting malicious ones. This app will inform you that a page is not trustworthy and restrict access to it.

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