$X Empire: The Mini App Game on TON that Scammed Millions of Users
The world of blockchain-based gaming has exploded with innovation, offering unique opportunities for players to earn rewards while immersing themselves in virtual experiences. However, not all games live up to their promises, and X Empire, a Telegram mini app game built on The Open Network (TON), is an unfortunate example of this darker side of the blockchain world.
In recent months, X Empire made headlines for all the wrong reasons, scamming millions of users with misleading promises of airdrops and deceptive practices. Here's a breakdown of how the scheme unfolded:
The Initial Promise: Pay to Claim Airdrops
When X Empire was first launched, it attracted users by offering the possibility of earning exclusive airdrops of TON tokens. In order to qualify for these airdrops, players were told they needed to participate in the game’s mining phase and achieve certain in-game milestones. However, there was a catch: to claim these airdrops, users were required to pay a transaction fee of 0.5 TON.
Many players, eager to secure their place in the game and reap future rewards, paid the fee, unaware of what was to come. The small transaction fee, while seemingly insignificant at first, began to accumulate as the game attracted thousands and eventually millions of players. The developers of X Empire capitalized on this initial excitement, building up substantial funds from users under the guise of this transaction fee requirement.
The Sudden Shift: No Fee Necessary
As the mining phase of the game came to a close, users eagerly awaited the promised airdrops. However, to the surprise and frustration of many, the X Empire team made a sudden and significant announcement: the 0.5 TON transaction fee that users had paid was, in fact, unnecessary for claiming the airdrops.
This revelation left users feeling misled and betrayed. Not only had they already paid what they believed to be a required fee, but the announcement also rendered their previous payments meaningless.
