Fake WHACKD tokens flood the market
John McAfee, an undoubtedly notorious figure in the financial and crypto worlds, passed away yesterday, and this has stirred a storm of conspiracy and scam tokens. McAfee was in prison in Barcelona, Spain on charges of federal tax evasion. He was awaiting extradition to the United States but was found dead in his cell late last night. The news of his passing has spurred action among conspiracy theorists, and scammers alike.
In November 2019, McAfee announced a new token – WHACKD, which was meant to honor his suspicions that the US government was set out to kill him. The WHACKD token had not made it to the spotlight while McAfee was alive, however, his untimely passing pushed a wave of people to start purchasing the token. Unfortunately, scammers got motivated along the way, and started pushing fake WHACKD tokens, and of course, people are falling for it.
Fake tokens appear to have the same ticker, however, if you look at their lifespan, you will notice that they don’t really have any history of existing before a couple of hours back in time. Not only that, the liquidity and volume for these are nowhere near close to that of the original WHACKD token. Here is an example of a fake:
And here are the stats for the actual WHACKD token:
Scam tokens and conspiracy go together
In November, John McAfee infamously tweeted a photo of his latest tattoo. He had a large image of the WHACKD token ticker inked on his arm in bold letters. The caption accompanying the photo urged people to disregard any information stating that McAfee had killed himself. Instead, people were to interpret his passing as an act of violence and crime from U.S officials.
The Tweet also redirected to a page where users could purchase WHACKD tokens and support McAfee’s theory.
Today, as officials in the U.S and Spain alike have issued statements that McAfee has committed suicide in his cell, conspiracy theorists are having a field trip. The increased activity surrounding McAfee’s name and the WHACKD token has also spurred a wave of fraudsters.
Scam tokens are flooding Uniswap and other exchanges. As an open, decentralized exchange, anybody can create a new token and list it on Uniswap. That’s why it is always best to research when dealing with these types of smaller crypto tokens.
Uniswap remains one of the most trusted swapping services out there. However, tickers like WHACKD should be approached with caution, considering the wave of fakes that have spawned already.
Unfortunately, a sad event like the death of a famous person like John McAfee is the perfect opportunity for scammers to launch their ideas. John McAfee was a huge name in finance, and his contributions to internet security are undeniable. If you’d like to learn more about him and his professional, and personal achievements, we recommend the following video:
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