Ethereum Classic Cooperative Warns Public Against Apparent Hard Fork Scam

An Ethereum Classic development organization is warning the public against a possible scam that is attempting to exploit users the day after the altcoin completed its hard fork.

Fraudsters say "Make Ethereum Classic great again!".

On Jan. 12, Ethereum Classic had activated the Agharta hard fork, which aims to improve interoperability with protocol changes introduced to its blockchain via its Constantinople and St. Petersburg upgrades last year.

The occasion of the hard fork appears to have spurred the malign actors behind EAgharta to attempt to exploit the event and peddle fraudulent proprietary "Agharta" coins.

New tokens have, as ETC Cooperative emphasizes, not in fact been created as part of the network's hard fork.

To warn users, ETC Cooperative posted a screenshot of EAgharta's Twitter handle and its solicitations to users to "Safely claim Ethereum Classic #Agharta."

The Twitter handle links to the scheme's site and its Trumpian byline of "Agharta Hardfork - make Ethereum Classic great again!".

The cooperative's spending policy supports the development of the Ethereum Classic network, infrastructure and related applications.

Ethereum Classic's name itself derives from the highly contentious hard forking of the Ethereum Network in 2016 in the wake of the DAO scandal.

With Ether currently ranked largest altcoin by market cap, Ethereum Classic lags some way behind in 19th place.