Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, has flagged a troubling rise in deepfake scams utilizing his likeness to deceive crypto founders. Polygon is among the largest Ethereum layer-2 networks.
In a Could 13 social media put up on X, Nailwal mentioned a number of people not too long ago reached out to confirm if he had spoken with them over Zoom.
Nevertheless, he was not concerned in these conferences because the scammers used manipulated movies of him to achieve belief and trick them into putting in dangerous software program.
How the scammers function
Nailwal said that the rip-off started with the compromise of the Telegram account belonging to Shreyansh Singh, who leads Polygon Ventures.
From there, the attackers messaged startup founders affiliated with Polygon’s funding community, pretending to reconnect for funding discussions.
recipients have been then invited to hitch Zoom conferences by way of phishing hyperlinks disguised to look official.
These hyperlinks required desktop entry and led to video calls that includes AI-generated variations of Nailwal, Singh, and a lady claiming to be a part of the funding crew.
Nailwal identified that the calls didn’t have audio. As an alternative, contributors have been urged to put in a Software program Improvement Equipment (SDK).
Nevertheless, the Polygon founder mentioned the transfer is designed to contaminate the recipient’s programs.
Rising issues about deepfakes
Nailwal’s incident is just not an remoted case and reveals that deepfake fraud is changing into a extra harmful industry-wide subject.
Through the years, deepfake impersonations have more and more focused outstanding crypto executives like Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who has additionally confronted a number of cases of his deepfakes being utilized in rip-off promotions.
This assault vector reveals cybercriminals’ rising use of generative AI within the evolution of crypto-related fraud. A latest report identified that losses from deepfake-driven scams exceeded $200 million in Q1 2025 alone.
As a consequence of this, Nailwal suggested group members by no means to put in unfamiliar software program throughout unsolicited interactions.
He additionally emphasised the significance of operational hygiene, urging crypto customers to separate their wallet-signing actions from common system use. He said:
“These assaults preserve getting an increasing number of subtle, so greatest strategy is to maintain a separate laptop computer for signing through your wallets solely from that laptop computer and by no means do anything on that pockets.”