Introduction
The past six months of the year 2024 turned out to be more terrifying due to cryptocurrency phishers, who, in the main, stole significant amounts of money that belonged to innocent people. Information garnered by Scam Sniffer, a key player in blockchain research, stands as a proof that this ever-evolving threat is spreading.
Record-Breaking Theft
The scammers that have specialized in phishing have not missed on their main target as they have managed to pocket $314 million worth of cryptocurrency in the first half of 2024, which was a 6.44% increment when associated with the same period in 2023. More than half of this vast amount, or $58 million, went to 20 victims alone, and one person among them went through the record-breaking experience when he lost $11 million. This particular event has the doubtful distinction of being the second-largest theft of cryptocurrency that has ever been recorded.
Methods of Attack
Reports founded on research carried out by Scam Sniffer demonstrate that those scammers that are well at phishing frequently make use of such phishing signatures as Permit and IncreaseAllowance and Uniswap Permit2. These procedures are such that the attackers can then have access to the sufferer’s assets even without asking for further licenses. In most cases, the cases of concern of the blockchain are acts like Staking, Restaking, Aave Collateral, and Pendle tokens
Luring Victims
The usual trap of the victims is that they would fall for the comments’ at the expense of social media platform X, assumed to be coming from their chosen account. They then are lured to a phishing site from which they transact some totally legitimate actions through devices that are not managed by the platform. As a result, the hackers are able to access their funds without their permission, inflicting considerable financial damage on the victims.
Efforts to Mitigate Losses
SlowMist, the company behind Scam Sniffer, revealed in July that they had frozen $20.66 million in stolen funds from 13 platforms in the second quarter of the year. Such a step is a huge reminder of the adhesive vulnerabilities in the industry like private key leakage, phishing, and fraud.
Emerging Threats
A new report by Bitget indicates an emerging threat in the crypto arena which is deepfake-related fraud. Since 2022, such scam has led to more than $79.1 billion in losses, and alone, the figure has gone up by 245% in 2024. Bitget cautions that deepfake manipulation poses at least a $10 billion quarterly revenue loss by 2025. The platform had already declared a total of $25.13 billion losses at the end of 2024.
Conclusion
The initial stage of 2024 has certainly reaffirmed the immediate requirement for beefed-up security systems within the crypto sphere. As the incidences of phishing scams and deepfake-related frauds are increasing, people must be cautious and implement the firmest strategies to secure their digital assets both at the personal and institutional levels.
