Screenshots of a scam email, purportedly from American credit reporting agency Equifax, have been making rounds on Twitter and Telegram since Monday. The email, titled “Free Pompompurin,” instructs users to send Bitcoins to a wallet address for a chance to earn double their crypto assets as part of an alleged partnership between Equifax and Crypto.com.
The email, which includes Equifax’s branding, appears to have been sent from an official Equifax domain — [email protected]. It’s unclear if Equifax’s email has been compromised. We’ve reached out to the Atlanta-based company for comments.
The email shows all the signs of a scheme to defraud victims of cryptocurrency. No well-established company would send an email promising to “double all bitcoins” if users send crypto to an address.
‘Free Pompompurin’
The subject of the email — “Free Pompompurin” — also indicates that this is a scam. Pompompurin is the alias of the 20-year-old hacker Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, who has been linked to the notorious dark web forum BreachForums.
The FBI apprehended Fitzpatrick on March 15th. His “alleged victims included millions of U.S. citizens and hundreds of U.S. and foreign companies, organizations, and government agencies.”
BreachForum claimed to have over 340,000 members as of March. It was a marketplace for various stolen items like U.S. social security numbers, account passwords, hacking tools, and everything from specialized ransomware tools to the stolen data of millions of people, including confidential FBI and private sector information.
“Like its predecessor RaidForums, which we took down almost a year ago, BreachForums bridged the gap between hackers hawking pilfered data and buyers eager to exploit it,” U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said in a statement.
Brett Callow, a threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, told CNN that BreachForums will likely be replaced by another site soon.
“While BreachForums is likely permanently offline, it will invariably be replaced by something else,” he said, adding that we may soon see a replacement cybercriminal Telegram channel or another “Breach-style forum” pop up.
Double-Your-Crypto Scams
“Double-your-crypto” scams are not uncommon. In May 2022, antivirus specialists at McAfee identified a similar scam where cybercriminals offered to double the crypto they received from victims. McAfee urged the public to be vigilant, saying, “if something sounds too good to be true, then it is most likely not legitimate.”
Cybercriminals are always on the prowl for deceptive schemes to defraud unsuspecting victims. It’s easy to fall for such sneaky financial scams if you’re not familiar with them. We recommend brushing up your knowledge of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency scams.
