Since El Salvador made Bitcoin legal money on September 7th, the country’s Bitcoin rollout has had its ups and downs.
Residents have shared both the positive and negative aspects of bitcoin acceptance in the last month. It has primarily been beneficial as individuals adjust to their new norm of having a cryptocurrency as a legal tender in addition to their previous dollar legal tender.
To stimulate the use of cryptocurrency, the Chivo wallet, which is the official wallet of the El Salvador government, offers a $30 sign-up incentive to people aged 14 and above.
Following the installation, the Chivo wallet experienced several technical difficulties. However, as the weeks have gone, the developers have ironed out the problems. Now, there’s a new problem with the wallet: El Salvadorians’ identities are being taken.
Theft of identity is on the rise
Residents must sign up with their details and prove it is them in order to receive the $30 BTC incentive from the Chivo wallet. Citizens will receive their bitcoin bonus and be on their way when the verification procedure is completed.
Scammers, on the other hand, began to take advantage of this at an alarming rate, to the point that residents began to speak out.
Some folks who have yet to activate their Chivo wallets discover that they have already done so. Scammers exploited residents’ personal information to activate their wallets, claim the $30 bonus, and withdraw the money.
Tatiana Marroquin, an El Salvadorian economist, downloaded the wallet for the first time only to discover that it had already been activated by someone else. Marroquin said on Twitter that she had never downloaded the wallet before but had been inspired to do so after seeing several citizen complaints about their wallets being activated by fraudsters.
The Security Of Chivo Bitcoin Wallets Has Been Called Into Question
Tatiana Marroquin isn’t alone in this situation. People who discovered their wallets had been activated without their knowledge have rushed the Chivo wallet hotline. Scammers have already gotten their hands on the $30 bitcoin sign-up incentive. But, more significantly, this poses a security concern for future bitcoin wallet use.
Due to the fact that each person may only activate one wallet, they are basically trapped with the wallets that the fraudsters have already gained access to. Putting money in these wallets is a big risk since fraudsters may simply get into them and take any money the user has in their Chivo wallet.
Furthermore, these bad actors may utilize these wallets to engage in illicit actions that are related to the user.
“Our personal data (DUI) might be connected to a user profile and actions that we have not carried out or authorized to if someone impersonates or steals our identity,” said attorney Laura Hernandez, a technology specialist and public policy analyst.
While the government of El Salvador has yet to respond to these assertions, some have questioned President Nayib Bukele’s claims that Chivo wallet is now used by more than half of the country’s population. Only 12% of those who responded to a poll indicated they had used the Chivo wallet, according to computer scientist Mario Gomez.
According to social media complaints, a substantial portion of the stated 52 percent of registered customers were fraudsters who fake consumers’ details in order to receive the $30 bitcoin incentive.
