Ethereum Classic Vision (ETCV) and Altcoins Ethereum Nowa (ETN) Are Allegedly Appropriating the Private Keys of Users

According to a recent report, two scam forks of Ethereum are appropriating the private keys of users. The alleged scam forks are Ethereum Classic Vision (ETN) and Altcoins Ethereum Nowa (ETCV). The scam forks are appropriating the private keys of users that are trying to redeem their forked coins.

The alleged scam was hidden in a report to Cointelegraph by the development team of Guarda Wallet on the 11th of January. The Ethereum Nowa project’s official site – that does not contain a whitepaper – discloses the process through which users are supposed to engage in to obtain the tokens.

Ethereum Nowa Vision (ETCV) Is a Scam Hard Fork/Airdrop

As stated in the website, users are expected to first send ether to an address. After which, they are supposed to export the private key and redeem the digital currency using the dedicated online tool. A user on Etherscan – the block explorer of Ethereum – commented on the earlier mentioned address.

The user said that the address is engaging in scam hard fork, and he warned other users not to send any token to the wallet address. The online tool dedicated to claiming the tokens seems to be a clone of MyEtherWallet (MEW) – a very popular online Ethereum wallet.

The major difference between the cloned and the original wallet interface is that the options that allow users to choose how they can access the wallet are grayed out, except the one that lets them paste their private keys. In addition, some web browsers even flagged the tool as a “Deceptive Website.”

On analyzing the code, the development team of Guarda Wallet found out that the private key isn’t only being processed by the tool, but also being forwarded to a remote server. It was also stated in the report that Ethereum Nowa “is a way for criminals to get your private details and get access to your wallet.”

According to the whitepaper of the project, the hard fork of Ethereum Classic Vision was supposed to happen on the 11th of January at 20:00 GMT. There are links on the website to a downloadable Linux and Windows wallet together with a web tool.

Close to the “Claim fork” button, the site states, “Regardless of which authorized wallet you use to hold your Ethereum, your free Ethereum Classic Vision (ETCV) will be initially sent to the official Ethereum Classic Vision wallet. While we are presently in negotiations with a number of popular wallets, at the moment of the fork we will not be able to send ETCV to those wallets due to certain differences in the algorithms used.”

The team of Guarda Wallet noted that while this project appears to be more solid than ETN, after thorough scrutiny, they discovered that the team of ETCV also appropriated the private keys of the users.

In a statement, the team said: “The analysis of the code carried out by our team has shown that the piece of code provided actually sends private key data on the server of Ethereum Classic Vision, masking it as an API token.”

Ethereum (ETH) Price Today – ETH / USD

NamePrice24H %
ethereum
Ethereum(ETH)
$0.00-2.08%

Ethereum (ETH) is currently worth $128 after a decrease of about one percent over the past twenty-four hours. The third-largest digital currency currently has a market cap of $13.06 billion and a trading volume of $1.84 billion over the past twenty-four hours.

Princess Ogono is a writer, lawyer and fitness enthusiast. She believes cryptocurrencies are the future. When she's not writing, she spends time with her adorable cat, Ginger and works out often.

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