It didn't take long for scammers to start taking advantage of Trump's pardon of Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht.
Why it matters: Critics have worried that setting Ulbricht free would further incentivize cybercriminals and online drug traffickers — showing there are few consequences for their actions.
Zoom in: Within hours of Trump signing the pardon Tuesday, researchers at online community vx-underground shared screenshots of scammers flooding the official "Free Ross" account on X with links to an "official" Telegram channel.
However, once people clicked on that link, they were directed to a page that claimed to need to verify their identity.
That ID verification was fake and asked them to run a set of commands on their computer that, once completed, would infect their device with malware, according to BleepingComputer.
Yesterday, X suspended the verified account vx-underground had found originally — but plenty of new verified dupes were up and spreading the fake Telegram link at the time (screenshot above).
The big picture: Scammers used the so-called ClickFix tactic, which is a fancy way of describing a method where attackers lure people into visiting a malicious website posing as a legitimate, widely known one.
Yes, but: Scammers are always going to find ways to scam — pardon or no pardon.
