Beware of The Front-Running Crypto Bot Scam
It’s 2022 and the crypto world continues to be a calling grounds for the slimy scammers of the shadowy realm. Well.. Today, I happened upon a very compelling and especially cruel crypto scam that goes deep and I went even deeper to find the truth beneath the surface..
This is.. The Front-Running Crypto Bot Scam!
To start this one off, we have a crucial concept to quickly hit, to see exactly how people are getting screwed out there.
What is Front-Running?
Basically, in the simplest of a simple terms… Front running is strategically cutting the line while an order is being executed on the blockchain, in order to inflate the price to those initially trying to execute their orders, for the front-runner to profit.
This is a term that originates on Wall Street, as back in the days of the less efficient, more cutthroat stock market, big money movers could use order information coming in to front run massive orders and profit off the price change that they know is coming as a result of the order they just cut in front of.
And now.. In the world of crypto.. there’s a whole lot more opportunity for juicy front-running potential.
How Does Someone Front Run in Cryptocurrency?
Most prominently, when someone with access to pending transactions, so let’s say a miner, they can place an order based on an order they see pending.. And if they have a way to get executed before that pending order, knowing that the pending order will have an effect on the overall price, then they can profit. And how can this miner pretty much guarantee he’ll get executed before the pending order? Well, by quoting a higher gas fee of course! Now let’s say you make a bot that can do this rapidly on thousands upon thousands of orders, profiting differences of pennies in price multiplied exponentially…. It can be very very lucrative.
SO this is when you might be asking… How exactly does a scam come into this? Is that the scam? Is the scammer in this scam front running our orders? No, friend. It is not! In fact, the scam comes from the idea of us bring the one doing the front running. It’s a classic case of the ol’ temptation of easy peasy earnings while we sit back in peace and watch the riches roll in. The idea is sexy, but the reality is painful. Like life, you might say.
Okay, let’s get specific here. To start, let’s look at why this particular scam is so ingenius and tempting.
Firstly, let’s break down how the opportunity is presented.
How The Front-Running Bot Scam is Presented on YouTube
Right now, circulating the web, is a series of videos, more are likely to be made as time progresses, but as of right now, there’s a few videos, all presenting the same thing, being posted across a massive amount of channels. We’re talking like 3 videos being uploaded over and over again on different, pseudo-crypto personality youtube channels loaded up with fake subscribers, fake likes and fake comments.
These videos are all titled something very similar..
“PancakeSwap front run bot” – “Sniper Bot” – “Make 10x instantly” – “Make $5000 daily” – “Beginner friendly front run bot” – “Crypto front running bot that makes 10x in hours”
And of course the thumbnails are all the same but also different. Colored like candy bars in a candy shop filled with empty promises and an eventual sugar overdose.. That wasn’t my best analogy, I see that now.
Within The Sniper Bot Scam Videos…
Well now that you’ve been sucked into this world of crypto bot potential, you’ll want to learn more. So eventually, you decide on a video and dive on in.
All the videos are the same in substance… And like I said, often it will literally be the exact same video uploaded to another channel, with slightly altered code for that specific scammer. But we’ll get there soon.
The video will throw some sort of human, trustable presence to start. Someone to trust. Either way, it’ll eventually get into the meat of it all.
The Process of Funding Your “Front Run Bot”
Explaining that you need to get MetaMask, get set-up with some BNB in your wallet, and eventually get yourself over to Ethereum Remix.. Which is in fact one of the most popular places for developing, deploying and managing smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. So at first glance, that’s not a red flag. In fact, it’s kinda the opposite. So, the temptation continues. The thoroughness of the scam thickens.
The video will go tutorial mode on ya and showcase how to create a new solidity contract in Remix, and then tell you to hit a link in the description to copy and paste the code for the contract into solidity. Mhm, mhm. It’s getting juicy.
Briefly Looking at The Code Within The Front Running Bot
Now, and this is a really clever move here, the video will most likely point out some specific lines in the code to pay attention to. Most likely these will be the only visible lines in the contract with token addresses. These token addresses will be some sort of massive, trustable token. Wrapped BNB most likely if this is one of the many PancakeSwap versions of the scam.
This is a classic magician move, folks. Keep the audiences eyes looking at the wrong things to set up for believable deception.
Proceeding Into Remix Ethereum
The tutorial will proceed along the remix process, all legitimate stuff, compiling the contract, matching the version numbers and eventually deploying the contract onto the blockchain!
And boom.. In your perspective, you just launched a smart contract, baby! You’re a master coder and you’re about to beat the system.
Funding The “Smart Contract”
The clever tutorial man will now explain that you gotta fund the contract. You’ve deployed it, but now you gotta throw some BNB in there to provide liquidity to quickly enter and exit positions and front run transactions on PancakeSwap. Chances are mr. con man won’t event get too much into the technicals of it, because, you know, it’s a lie. He’ll probably say something about providing liquidity and mention something about throwing a little extra BNB in to ensure there’s enough liquidity. Zing word, zing word, zing word, yes.
And boom, now you’ve funded your front running bot contract.
And just like that.. Your money is now gone forever..
I’m sorry for your loss. We’ll get more into this shortly..
Losing Your BNB To The Front Run Bot Scam
The video will now show you how to call buttons work, or more specifically, lie to you about how the red “action” call button works. Expressing that this is the final step, starting the process on PancakeSwap, it’ll only cost a few dollars, if that, to cue the action, and allegedly, that’s what makes the front running magic happen!
But in fact.. The only magic that happened.. Was magical deception of your money straight into the wallet of this here conman..
The video will probably end things off about now. BUT not before showcasing the results, of course. He’ll say something about the process usually only taking a few minutes or so.
Then, now again, this is one of the best, most compelling parts.. He’ll say something along the lines of it happening quickly because “There’s so many trash coins and rug-pulls out there these days.”
The Genius of Mentioning Other Rug Pulls and PooCoins
Now, do you see the dark genius behind this move? It’s indirectly gaining our trust because it puts him on our side. There are the poop-coin, rug-pulling scam folks.. And then there’s us.. And with that simple, throwaway line.. He’s on our side. And BOOM. Swish. The deal is sealed.
Profiting BNB From The “Front Run”
The final act of his quest will be showcasing, now that it’s been a minute or so, that there’s probably profit by now.
And once he clicks that MetaMask icon. Kaboom, baby. Something realistic and believable.. Like 50x profit in 2 minutes flat..
Video over, like and subscribe, goodbye and farewell to all.. He just scammed you while hidden in plain sight.
Now that we recognize the process, it’s time we dove even deeper.. To the next level, friend.. How exactly does this scam work?
How Does The BNB PancakeSwap Front Run Bot Scam work?
There’s a lot of layers of morality-free sneakiness in this one. It took me a good long while to figure it out.. But here goes..
I couldn’t figure out how in the heck this would work for the scammer.. Because we are in fact making our own contract, deployed with our own wallet, and there’s no way he has access to all of them. So I tried looking through the code, finding some sort hidden wallet address where perhaps it was going to him and not my contract, but no! On the BSCScan it all showed up as it should..
I make the contract, deploy it, fund it and hit that action button. Those are the only transactions on this contract! So HOW does a scammer make money with this?
Well, once again, it’s all about the magician’s strategies. Hide in plain side, send their eyes where they shouldn’t be looking..
The Hidden Code Within The Code In The Smart Contract
At the very start of the smart contract, there’s a series of imports. Very clever, because chances are 3 or so of them are legit solidity contracts being imported into this one.. But ONE of them is not. One of them is an evil contract, and this is where the code is that’s redirecting and depositing our smart contracts funds directly into the wallet of whoever gave us that sneaky, corrupt contract. This is where the dark magic happens, tucked away in a contract within a contract, surrounded by legitimacy to blend in with the lies.
Now, I’ve found a real range of how these sneaky contracts are implemented. Sometimes it’s linked to another GitHub url with the evil contract, sometimes it links to plain text, sometimes it uses an IPFS.. Which of course, is not easily trackable on regular browsers. But if you take one of these evil IPFS urls into something like Brave Browser.. Well then the truth reveals itself to us..
It’s a scam shrouded in illusions of trust and of legitimacy. The fact that you’re compelling and deploying the contract yourself really does seem technically-sound. So for that reason, it’s an incredibly clever and incredibly dangerous scheme.
So Then.. How Do We Win Against The Crypto Scammers?
This article is to delve into the underbelly and understand what’s happening in the dark side of crypto..
But also, to save future souls from falling victim..
So the first step in winning this war.. Spread the word!
Shout it from the rooftops, tattoo it to your chest! Get the word out on this particular scam and it will progressively kill it. The less effective it is, the less victims to come. Spread. The. Word.
Due Diligence on Smart Contract Scams
And most importantly, the way to win in the long term.. Learn to deep dive these contracts! Now, I’m no smart contract, mr. solidity expert. But I’m learning.. And I’m getting better and better at avoiding cons, grifts and honeypots as the days go by. So friends, do the same!
Always look for other wallet addresses in the contract! Search it thoroughly! And as we’ve seen here today, that’s just the surface layer.
Go through each and every one of the imported solidity contracts and URLs. This is the crucial part. Open each of these imported URLS, open those suckers and search for hidden wallet addresses and other things that look fishy.
And Look Out For IPFS Addresses!
If the URLs look good, but there’s one of these inexplicable IPFS URLs that can’t be opened in Chrome.. Get yourself the Brave Browser and copy and paste that sucker up in there to search it thoroughly.
Report The Front-Running Crypto Bot Scam on YouTube
Beyond this, report these videos with all your might. When you these scammer folk pop up across the youtube sphere, across Twitter and across the comments of the blockchain explorers, Report those goddamn videos, folks. You can try commenting about how it’s a scam too, but they’ll most likely just delete your comment immediately. So report, report, report..
What if I Lost My BNB To The PancakeSwap Front Run Bot?
If you’re here right now and you’ve fallen into one of these traps. If you’re one of them innocent bears just looking for a fresh pot of honey, now stuck in the space head-first and hopeless…
Then let’s pour one out for you.
Can I Recover My Lost BNB?
Unfortunately, once your money has been sent to the contract, it’s gone for good.
So, rest in peace to your BNB. Take this loss as a gain in knowledge and start fighting back by spreading the word on this scam.
In Conclusion..
The world of crypto is a game-changing beauty, filled with excitement and a whole lot of potential. Unfortunately, that combination calls to the moral-less sector amidst the shadowy realms of the web. The folks itching to take advantage of those that don’t know any better. But now.. You do!
That there is all I got for you on this one. May we continue to fight the good fight and crush down upon the world of shadowy crypto scammers. Especially regarding this here Front-Running Crypto Bot Scam.
If you want to take another deep dive into the world of Money Lore and beyond, come explore my channel!
And if not, then that’s fine and I forgive you.
