Shiba Inu community member Mazrael has flagged more than 137 scam tokens that impersonate the SHIB deployer to appear legitimate. The effort exploits trust in the project’s original creator, known as Ryoshi, by forging a false link to the wallet that deployed the SHIB contract.

The Scam Mechanism Explained

Scammers craft tokens that record any address as the sender in their transfer logs. They insert the SHIB deployer’s address into these records, so explorers like Etherscan show “Ryoshi sent you this token.” In reality, the deployer wallet, 0xB8f2…FA08, has not sent a single transaction since October 2021.

Clicking on the transaction itself reveals the true “From” address, which is never the deployer. This gap between the token’s claim and the actual on-chain data allows scammers to mislead buyers who rely on what the token advertises rather than what actually happened.

Scale of the Scam

Mazrael’s documentation shows at least 9,131 fake transfers affecting more than 2,500 wallets. Zero of these transfers were initiated by the deployer. The operation has hit numerous wallets with tokens bearing familiar names and themes from the SHIB ecosystem.

Promotion Tactics

Some tokens gained traction when shilled by original SHIB enthusiasts and former project administrators as “Ryoshi-backed.” This endorsement from respected voices in the community made the fake tokens appear more credible to unsuspecting buyers.

Details on the Real Deployer

The SHIB deployer address has no public signed messages on record and never linked to any individual. It deployed only the SHIB contract and has remained inactive since October 2021. Other SHIB-related projects like LEASH, BONE, and TREAT use different deployers, further separating the original token from any connection to the impersonation scheme.

Mazrael stressed that tokens must be verified through transaction signatures rather than labels or claims. This case underscores the risks of trusting project branding over verifiable on-chain evidence in the memecoin space.