Fraudulent GrubHub Crypto Promotion Scam: FBI Warns of Holiday Phishing Attacks

Source: CryptoNewsNet Original Title: Scam Grubhub email claims tenfold crypto returns Original Link:

Fraudulent GrubHub Email Scam

GrubHub users have been receiving fraudulent emails emanating from a fraudulent email address, promising them a tenfold payment in return for a transfer of Bitcoin to a specified wallet. The email claimed to be part of a ‘Holiday Crypto Promotion’ and comes from the legitimate ‘b.grubhub.com’ subdomain.

According to reports, the email address is one GrubHub uses when communicating with its merchant partners and restaurants. “There are 30 minutes left in our Holiday Crypto Promotion. Grubhub will 10x any Bitcoin sent to this address […]. For example, if you send $1000, we’ll send back $10,000,” reads the fraudulent message. Some emails were delivered from ‘merry-christmas@b.grubhub.com’ and ‘crypto-promotion@b.grubhub.com.’ The emails have been circulating since December 24 and include the names of recipients.

How the Scam Works

The scam is a fake crypto reward campaign where scammers lure victims to send funds to wallets under their control, promising to return a larger amount. This type of scam has been prevalent over the past few years since crypto became mainstream. Scammers often use the comment sections of popular figures to promise users more than two-fold returns when they send digital assets to specified wallets.

With the messaging address appearing to mimic an original GrubHub email, some users have speculated the scam may result from a DNS takeover attack. This would allow attackers to send emails that pass authenticity checks, though the company has yet to provide in-depth details about the incident. GrubHub stated: “We’re aware of unauthorized messages that appear to have been sent by Grubhub to some of our merchant partners. We immediately investigated, contained the issue, and are taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

FBI Warnings on Holiday Scams

This incident is one of several that the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned users about recently. The federal agency mentioned that scammers would target victims looking to take advantage of holiday shopping, robbing them of funds or digital assets. Users seeking holiday discounts may fall into traps set by these bad actors.

The FBI also highlighted other scams including non-delivery scams, where users pay for items they never receive, and non-payment scams, where users ship goods before receiving payment. According to the agency, users lost more than $785 million to non-payment and non-delivery scams in 2024, with credit card fraud accounting for another $199 million in losses.

The agency receives large complaint volumes in early months of each year, suggesting many users were scammed during the festive period. The FBI has urged users to avoid clicking on suspicious links, as scammers use phishing links to access personal information and trick users into entering crypto login credentials on fake websites, leading to theft.