Beware! Safepal Wallet Firefox add-on can steal cryptocurrency, from Bitcoin to Litecoin

Online frauds have become relatively common these days. Scammers keep finding new and innovative ways to defraud innocent people. While in some cases they use fake banking websites to target internet users, in other cases they have promised to treat them with special rewards. Now, a new scam going on the internet is targeting cryptocurrency users on Mozilla Firefox web browser - Safepal Wallet Firefox add-on. A Firefox add-on called ‘Safepal Wallet’ is scamming users by emptying out their e-wallets. What’s surprising is that this malicious add-on has lived on Mozilla’s Firefox web-browser for almost seven months, a new report by Bleeping Computer says. SafePal is a crypto-management platform that is capable of holding over 10,000 types of assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. It is backed by Binance and it is now being used by over 2,000,000 users in over 146 countries across the globe.

Now, malicious scammers are using a Firefox add-on named after SafePal to run an online fraud and thereby defraud internet users. The issue was highlighted by a SafePal user Cali in Firefox support group. “Today I browsed true the add-on list of Mozilla Firefox I was searching for Safepal wallet extension to use my cryptocurrency wallet also in the web browser. So my searching ended on the following page: https://addons.mozilla.org/nl/firefox/addon/safepal-wallet/ 22,” she wrote on the support page.

“8 hours later I checked if my funds were still save on my phone software wallet also from Safepal I saw nothing $0,- balance I was deep in shock I saw my last transactions and saw that my funs ($4000),” she added in her post.

Interestingly, the add-on page for 'Safepal Wallet' says that the add-on was up since at least 16 February 2021. The same page says that the 235 KB add-on is a Safepal application that securely "saves private key locally." It also has product images and convincing-looking marketing materials.

Bleeping Computer reports that to publish an add-on on Mozilla's website, developers are required to follow a thorough submission process. Firefox’s developer platform says that the submitted add-ons are "subject to review by Mozilla at any time." But, remains unclear as to what this review process entails and how thoroughly are they reviewed.

Safepal Wallet Firefox add-on taken down

Fortunately, Mozilla Firefox has taken down the add-on. “When we become aware of add-ons that pose a risk to security and privacy according to our Add-on Policies, we take steps to prevent them from running in Firefox. In this instance, shortly after we became aware of potential abuse by this extension, we took action to block and remove it from the Firefox Add-on store," a Mozilla spokesperson told the publication.