In the recent wave of cybercrime, Cryptocurrency Users lost over $4 million in funds to crypto criminals. Many thefts were carried out through phishing sites advertised in Google Ads.
These fraudulent websites mimicked legitimate cryptographic platforms to trick unsuspecting users into entering their login credentials, private keys, or other sensitive information.
Once criminals have this information, they can access users’ cryptocurrency wallets and steal digital assets. Her ScamSniffer, an anti-fraud service provider for Web3, recently reported a large number of malicious ads for phishing websites in Google Ads searches.
Last month, scammers profited 276% from their illegal activities due to the number of users affected and the money they used to promote their fraudulent ads.
These villains are influencing multiple decentralized financial protocols, websites and brands including DefiLlama, Lido, Orbiter Finance, Radiant, Stargate and Zapper. The scammers are targeting her DeFi users who are hard to identify clicking on malicious links as their official URLs have changed slightly.
ScamSniffer says:
If you open a malicious ad from Zapper, you will see that it is trying to gain $SUDO authorization using Permit signatures. Currently, many wallets do not have clear risk warnings for this type of signature, and ordinary users may sign it thoughtlessly, thinking it is a normal login signature.
Crypto scammers use many tactics to carry out these scams
ScamSniffer reports that scammers are implementing various tactics to evade Google’s ad review process, including manipulating Google click ID parameters, using anti-debugging techniques, and employing parameter differentiation. . These methods allow the scammer to view her legitimate webpage during the ad review process conducted by Google.
ScamSniffer’s analysis of addresses associated with fraudulent websites promoted by scammers reveals that cryptocurrency users lost approximately $4.16 million last month, with over 3,000 people affected by the scam. . Additionally, anti-fraud tracks the movement of funds on the blockchain to various exchanges and mixing services such as SimpleSwap, Tornado Cash, KuCoin and Binance.
Scammers spent around $15,000 on website ads and got a 40% conversion rate from 7,500 users who clicked on malicious ads. A metadata analysis of several phishing websites linked the responsible advertiser to her two primary locations in Ukraine and Canada.
Increase in phishing attacks within the crypto space
Cryptocurrency criminals have previously abused Web2 tools and services to steal funds from Web3 users. For example, in 2020 they hacked his Twitter accounts of celebrities including Elon Musk, who demanded that users claim free crypto tokens via links to malicious websites.
Scammers frequently use phishing attacks to steal cryptocurrency funds from users. DeFi, in particular, continues to be a favorite target for hackers, with more than $3.7 billion siphoned off in 2022 alone.
Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView.com
