He was deceived by the name of a 42 billion dollar company and lost 245 thousand dollars worth of altcoins.

A cryptocurrency investor was deceived by the name of the investment company Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and lost his altcoins.

Cryptocurrency fraudsters continue to steal through various methods. A fraudster stole altcoins by impersonating a well-known name a few weeks ago.

Reached through social media

Peter Lauten, one of the partners of a16z, which manages assets worth $ 42 billion, changed his X (formerly Twitter) username from @peter_lauten to @lauten.

A crypto scammer noticed this and opened an account on X with the username @peter_lauren. Then, he sent a message to a cryptocurrency user on social media, saying that they were interested in "innovative projects" and suggested doing a podcast together.

The user downloaded a fake meeting app called “Vortax” to discuss the details of the alleged podcast. This was actually malware.

He lost his altcoins

According to the information shared by ZachXBT, the user lost the altcoins in his wallet shortly after downloading the “Vortax” application. The fraudster transferred them to cryptocurrency exchanges via several different wallets.

What made the scammer believable was that a16z's site still listed Peter Lauten's old username.