Grubhub’s Bitcoin Payment Offer Is a Scam.
Some Grubhub users received a tempting email from the food delivery service: send $1,000 in Bitcoin to a specified wallet and get 10 times that amount back. Unfortunately, this is a scam.
According to BleepingComputer , these promotional emails were sent from addresses on b.grubhub.com, a legitimate Grubhub subdomain, so they appear as verified in recipients’ inboxes. Examples of senders include [email protected] and [email protected] .
Beyond that, there are some pretty clear red flags. The subject line reads, “30 minutes left—we’ll multiply your bitcoins by 10!” to create a sense of urgency and make the offer seem too tempting (but also too good to ignore). The body of the email includes the recipient’s name and instructions for participating in Grubhub’s “Holiday Crypto Deal,” along with a bitcoin wallet address.
Although Grubhub acknowledged the issue, the company did not provide any details about how attackers were able to send emails using its corporate address. Earlier this year, the company experienced a major security breach that resulted in the leak of some user data (including names and email addresses).
There are several types of cryptocurrency reward scams.
Grubhub’s email marketing campaign is a fairly typical example of cryptocurrency scams. The Federal Trade Commission describes several variants , including get-rich-quick schemes that guarantee high returns on investment and celebrity-sponsored “giveaways” that claim to multiply any funds you send.
If you fall victim to a cryptocurrency scam, it will be impossible to trace or recover your money, and even if there are only a few victims, the scammers can make a huge profit. That’s why you should be especially wary of anything that requires cryptocurrency transactions, especially if the offer sounds urgent or evokes feelings of anxiety or fear. And remember, no legitimate organization—government agency, law enforcement agency, utility company, or sweepstakes organizer—will ever request payments in cryptocurrency.