Scammers Build Fake GIWA Blockchain to Steal $2M
Crypto scammers built an entire fake blockchain to steal over $2 million from unsuspecting users.
The scammers created a counterfeit version of the GIWA blockchain, which was backed by South Korea's largest crypto exchange Upbit. The fake network appeared to be GIWA's anticipated Ethereum Layer 2 mainnet and included an RPC endpoint, cross-chain bridge, and Chain ID 9134.
However, GIWA's actual mainnet was not live at the time, and its production RPC did not exist. In fact, GIWA's documentation listed only GIWA Sepolia, which uses Chain ID 91342.
The scammers waited for deposits before changing the bridge, allowing them to accumulate over $2 million in stolen funds. According to Stablemark, wallets tied to the operation were funded through ChangeHero on September 26, and the first significant deposits arrived around 11 hours later.