Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, flagged the nasty rise of Deepfark scams using his caricatures to deceive the founder of the code. Polygons are one of the largest Ethereum Layer 2 networks.
In a May 13 social media post on X, Nailwal said several individuals recently reached out to see if they spoke on Zoom.
However, he was not involved in those meetings as the scammers gained trust using his operating videos and tricked them into installing harmful software.
How scammers work
Nailwal said the scam started with a compromise on the Telegram account belonging to Shreyansh Singh, who leads Polygon Ventures.
From there, the attackers sent a message to the founders of Startup, who belong to Polygon’s investment network, pretending to reconnect for a fundraising discussion.
Interested winners were then invited to participate in the Zoom meeting through a fishing link disguised as officially visible.
These links require desktop access, leading to video calls featuring versions generated by Nailwal, Singh and the AI of women who claim to be part of the investment team.
Nailwal pointed out that there is no audio on the call. Instead, participants were encouraged to install a Software Development Kit (SDK).
However, the founder of Polygon said the move was designed to infect recipient systems.
Rising concerns about deepfakes
The Nailwal case is not an isolated case, but shows that Deepfake scams are becoming more dangerous industry-wide problems.
For many years, Deepfake’s spoofing has targeted prominent crypto executives like Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
This attack vector shows an increase in the use of cybercriminals of generation AI in the evolution of crypto-related fraud. A recent report pointed out that In the first quarter of 2025 alone, losses from Deepfark-led fraud exceeded $200 million.
For this reason, Nailwal advised community members not to install unfamiliar software during unsolicited interactions.
He also highlighted the importance of operational hygiene, urging crypto users to separate wallet signing activities from common device use. He said:
“The best approach is to keep another laptop to sign through the wallet only from that laptop and do nothing else with that wallet.”
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