Google Yanked MetaMask From the Chrome Store, Left a Phishing Scam Up

That was how Kevin Serrano, an employee at ethereum startup and incubator ConsenSys, described the revelation that MetaMask had been removed from Google Chrome's web store in a recently published blog post.

MetaMask, a Consensys "Spoke," is an ethereum wallet that also serves as a bridge between web browsers and the ethereum blockchain.

A little after 10:00 a.m. EDT Wednesday morning, the MetaMask team announced on Twitter that the extension had been removed from the Chrome store.

The extension was restored to the web store around five hours later.

According to Serrano, Google explained that delisting MetaMask had been an "Error."

With MetaMask proper removed, Serrano wrote, "What was left when one searched the term 'MetaMask' on the store was a few re-branded MetaMask forks and one ambiguously branded lookalike."

At one point Augur, another ethereum project, tweeted a warning not to download an extension called "MetaMask by Kupi.net," which was available in the Chrome store.

Serrano told CoinDesk in an email that attempts to steal from users were also present on Telegram, a messaging platform popular with cryptocurrency enthusiasts, where attackers were "Posing as an alternative support desk." It appears that some users were affected by this scam, he said, as well as an unrelated one on the Google Play Store, which lists apps for Google's Android operating system.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment on these phishing attempts.

While MetaMask continued to work on other browsers - Brave, Opera and Firefox - and those who had already downloaded the Chrome version were still able to use it, the team is looking into more decentralized alternatives such as IPFS, Serrano said.