'EtherSecurityLookup' is a Javascript-based Chrome Extension to Detect Crypto Scammers

The phenomenal growth of crypotocurrencies over the by year has brought with it a groups of fraudsters and con artists, who are using social media to run misleading, and often fraudulent ads that are meant to lure unsuspecting victims into ownership digital currencies with false promises and under imitation pretexts. With artificially inflated demand, the prices of cryptocurrencies skyrocket, giving these fraudsters the chance to cash out their ain investments, leaving innocent victims fending for themselves with no idea if they'll ever recover their difficult-earned money.

Now, the Ethereum community has had plenty of their leaders being impersonated on Twitter and other platforms, and are fighting back against these scamsters. Their weapon of pick? A tiny piece of software called 'EtherSecurityLookup'. Adult by Harry Denley, information technology's a Javascript-based Google Chrome extension that warns users about possible fake Twitter accounts trying to impersonate well-known leaders of the cryptocurrency industry. Denley says the thought for the extension came to him when Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin was impersonated on Twitter by multiple fake accounts, one of which is shown in the image below.

Funnily enough, Buterin says that there are at least 827 accounts on Twitter that are trying to impersonate him past altering his name "via a single addition, exchange, swap or deletion". Equally tin can seen, however, his account is verified by Twitter's blue checkmark, which is something users should always watch out for while determining if an account truly belongs to a public figure or not.

TIL that the # of ways to modify my name via a single addition, substitution, swap or deletion is 827 (753 if adjacent swap merely)

Whack a mole to terminate scam accts is Non working….. we demand enforcement of Levenshtein-Damerau distance b/w accounts (or a better reputation system)

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) Jan 31, 2018

EtherSecurityLookup is already bachelor for download from the Chrome Web Store, where it is officially being described as "a sister app to EtherAddressLookup, but security focused on helping forbid people falling victim to phishing scams within the Ethereum world".

In example y'all're unaware, EtherAddressLookup is a Chrome extension that "t ries to protect you lot from being phished by checking a domain blacklist that is constantly being updated". Goes without maxim, it'due south too developed past Denley, and is pretty well loved past the Ethereum community. Denley, however, is yet to publish a Firefox version of his software, and it isn't entirely clear if he has any plans to practice so in the foreseeable future.