Polygon founder sounds alarmed about his deepfark being used for fraud

Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Ethereum Sidechain Polygon, uses his deepfake to warn his followers about the scammer. In an X post, the Crypto entrepreneur said the scammers contacted various people and asked them to install the script.

According to Nailwal, the con man uses him and another polygon executive Deepfake Avatars to deceive the founder of the crypt over video calls. He explained that the attacker had compromised Polygon Ventures’ Telegram account, leading Shreyansh Singh and using it for fraud.

Through Singh’s account, they contacted all Crypto founders and portfolio companies that Singh had previously communicated to and asked them to reconnect and set up the meeting via the Calendly link.

However, scammers must send Zoom meeting links to potential victims and participate in video calls that can only work on the desktop. Anyone who joined the phone will find deepfake videos of Nailbaal, Singh and another woman who was claimed to be an employee of Polygon.

Interestingly, voice is disabled on calls, and scammers usually enable voice by sending a link to ask founders to install a Software Development Kit (SDK). Nailwal pointed out that it’s game over for those installing the script, as it can infect a user’s computer and allow scammers to steal assets.

Victims acknowledge the incident as concerns about deepfakes grow

Meanwhile, some crypto founders who joined the call also raised alarms about the risk of deep-fark calls. Rabble co-founder Prasad Kaavya pointed out that Nailwal’s Deepfake Avatars and others looked very realistic.

He added that he personally knows Nailwal and that the co-founder of Polygon has not been taking part in the random zoom call. So he immediately closed the phone, sent a Google Meet Link to someone and led him to delete the chat and block him. He said:

“There’s a scary part here. If I hadn’t been personally connected to these people, I might have trusted Deepfark.”

Swaroop Hedge, co-founder of Powerloom Protocol, confirmed that they received similar messages from the scammers, but he quickly caught the scam and didn’t take part in the video call.

Meanwhile, several crypto entrepreneurs have confirmed the prevalence of the attack, highlighting the rise in scammers’ use of AI tools and the rise in fake video calls in recent months. Deepfake’s spoofing targets key crypto stakeholders and celebrities, resulting in more than $200 million losses in the first quarter of 2025 alone.

Nailwal advises crypto users about security

In an incident showing the important risks faced by Crypto users, Nailwal advised his followers on installing something on their device when someone else begins an interaction. This seems to be the easiest way for scammers to access a user’s device.

According to security researcher Tayvano, several groups of fraudsters on Telegram use this method, with such groups making more than $50 million. She explained that the attacker attempts to inject malware into the user device to steal private data such as private keys, telegram messages and browser data.

Meanwhile, Nailwal added that the best thing for users is to have separate laptops to manage and sign in with their crypto wallets, and not use them for other purposes.

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.”

He also said that telegrams are not possible to act on this issue despite being common on social messaging platforms.

As for users who took part in video calls with scammers, many of them have confirmed that they have already formatted their computers as a precaution. There were no reports that scammers could steal anyone’s funds.