Real-life Squid Game Scams Crypto Investors Out of Millions, But No Suspects Yet

SQUID crypto token, which yesterday surged over 6500% in just a few hours and then crashed by 99.99% almost immediately, turned out to be a rug pull scam by unknown actors. Inspired by the hit Netflix series Squid Game, creators of SQUID have gone dark after encashing their tokens for approximately $3.38 million.

A group of unknown quick-witted scamsters successfully siphoned off millions from victims by exploiting the popularity of the hit show Squid Game. The scam, which initially raised suspicions in some quarters, targeted gullible crypto investors who couldn’t identify the apparent red flags in the whole operation.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the highly popular South Korean series was viewed from 111 million Netflix accounts in its first 28 days of release, making it the biggest-ever series launch. Unfortunately for fans, scamsters were quick to stitch together what is commonly referred to in the cryptocurrency investor community as a ‘rug pull’ scam.

Rug pull is a type of scam wherein creators of a cryptocurrency liquidate investments, leaving none for others. As a result of this encashment of coins to fiat currency, the price of the cryptocurrency falls to negligible levels, which is exactly what happened with SQUID, a cryptocurrency token developed and marketed as ‘play-to-earn,’ hanging investors to dry.

As reported by Gizmodo, the perpetrators of the scam managed to defraud victim investors out of $3.38 million within a week. Launched last week, SQUID cryptocurrency managed to ascend to dizzying heights (by a newcomer’s standards) of $2,856 (~75,000% rise) before quickly nosediving the same way it went up.

SQUID Growth and Decline | Source: CoinMarketCap

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At its current price of $0, there’s nothing left for investors to salvage from what was never a legitimate operation. Not even its website and white paper, which were hosted on SquidGame.cash. SQUID’s Twitter account is also restricted for unusual activity.

“We have received multiple reports that the website and socials are no longer functional & the users are not able to sell this token in Pancakeswap,” reads a notice on CoinMarketCap website. “Please do your own due diligence and exercise extreme caution. This project, while clearly inspired by the Netflix show of the same name, is not affiliated with the official IP.”

SQUID was supposed to be a Squid Game-styled play-to-earn operation that entails an entry fee. Winner of a game, much like those on the hit show, would be rewarded with SQUID tokens which had a crypto value associated with them. The game was supposed to launch in November.

What’s bemusing is that these SQUID tokens couldn’t be sold, which is the first, not to mention the only tip-off needed to stay away from such operations. Additionally, the now-disappeared SQUID website featured grammatical and spelling errors, a tell-tale sign of malicious online content.

Moreover, there was no way for ‘outsiders,’ or those that weren’t the unknown scammers, to reply in the SQUID Telegram channel and to tweets. Also, the developers of SQUID were unknown.

Like the Squid Game from the series, it looks like there’s only one winner here as well.

This rug pull scam is one of multiple cryptocurrency scams being marketed as legitimate operations. With cryptocurrency, which already has a bad rap in some spheres, it may become difficult to differentiate the legitimate ones from the scams. The combined $2.6 trillion market cap of other cryptocurrencies remains unshaken from the scam as of now.

The popularity of Squid Game is also being milked by TA575, a “large cybercrime actor” to distribute the Dridex malware. According to ProofpointOpens a new window , TA575 has been sending malicious emails laden with Dridex, a banking trojan, hidden within attached Excel files. The lure is simple: feed on fans’ anticipation of new seasons with subject lines such as:

• “Squid Game is back, watch new season before anyone else.”
• “Invite for Customer to access the new sesason.”
• “Squid game new season commercials casting preview”
• “Squid game scheduled season commercials talent cast schedule”

So far, Proofpoint has discovered thousands of such emails with Dridex. If opened, Dridex can lead to data theft, usually financial, and installation of follow-on malware such as ransomware.

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