As of Mid-July, HALO’s HUMINT team
identified another “Michael Sonnenshein”
impersonator on Telegram using the handle,
@Trader_Michael_Sonnenshein. This impersonator
began by confirming that he was “Michael
Sonnenshein, the Managing Director at Grayscale
Investments, the largest cryptocurrency asset”. The
imposter spoke in non-native English, at one point
identifying that his nationality was “Los Angeles”. The
minimum investment the threat actor was seeking was
$500 which would earn a return of $5350 within 24
hours. He stated that his company only accepted
bitcoin payments - not cash or any other
cryptocurrency. The impersonator provided a wallet
address for bitcoin deposits and said he would set up a
trading account after the deposit was received. The
impersonator said the company did not have a website
and that they closed all telegram platforms due to a
“high rate of Fraudsters steeling (sic) testimony from
the platform”