Venezuelan Scammers Exploit USDT Adoption with Fake Tokens

Scammers in Venezuela are taking advantage of the widespread use of USDT tokens to steal from merchants. They do this by sending fake USDT tokens, which have zero value, as payment for goods.

The scammers convince merchants to use self-custody wallets, where the fake USDT tokens appear valid and can be used for payments. These cloned tokens mimic real USDT contracts, making them difficult to distinguish from legitimate ones.

Juan Kassabji, a Venezuelan tech enthusiast, reported this scheme happening at a store checkout, where scammers asked merchants to use external wallets that display the fake tokens. The scam worked as criminals used these tokens to execute the settlement and show the payment as completed, leaving the store with the goods purchased.

Kassabji stressed that he knew of at least one case where a merchant accepted these fake tokens in an exchange involving over $5,500. He recommended using Binance, which hosts most of the country's P2P exchanges, to receive payments, as it credits only valid USDT tokens into its customers' balances.