In the fast-paced world of cryptocurrencies, a new wave of clever scams have started to target people who don’t know what they’re doing. Wallet-draining software on phishing sites has made them a common tool for crooks, causing people to lose a lot of money.
Scammers stole $3 million worth of coins in just one day by using the popularity and power of Google Ads to get people to visit fake Web3 websites. These websites look a lot like real platforms like Zapper, Lido, Stargate, DefiLlama, Orbiter Finance, and Radient. They use software that drains users’ wallets to steal digital assets from people who don’t know it.
Based on a story from Nosisnews on December 21, these scams have stolen $59 million in cryptocurrency using a tool called MS Drainer. A cybersecurity company called Scam Sniffer has linked these thefts to specific attacker addresses and found a new set of events on December 25 from phishing sites that were linked to these addresses.
The person who found the Christmas Day Heist Scam Sniffer told Nosisnews that about $3 million was stolen during phishing strikes on Christmas Day alone. The stolen items included many different cryptocurrencies, such as Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), aPolUSDT, aUSDC, and Tether (USDT). The company showed proof by sharing photos.
another victim lost $880k worth of aEthWBTC to phishing scams about 11 minutes ago. https://t.co/yMM9OSzRDIhttps://t.co/6n6m0lZQK4pic.twitter.com/jsrEGTaVJ8
— Scam Sniffer | Web3 Anti-Scam (@realScamSniffer) December 26, 2023
In April 2023, Scam Sniffer told Google Ads’ security team about the promotion of these bad sites and their use of software that drains wallets. But the platform hasn’t done anything about these warnings yet. This inaction shows a big hole in how the digital advertising giant checks for possibly harmful content.
This new wave of phishing thefts is a stark warning to all bitcoin users to be careful. The best way to protect yourself from these kinds of scams is to carefully check that websites are real and carefully approve transactions through Web3 wallets.
A representative for Scam Sniffer stressed that phishing scams are the biggest threat to users right now. The only way to stop this is for users to carefully look over every signature request.
Scam Sniffer recently released a report that showed that 10,072 fake websites used MS Drainer in 2023. According to information from a Dune Analytics dashboard that is only used to track this problem, these sites have stolen about 58.98 million bitcoin from over 63,000 victims.
The number of phishing scams in the cryptocurrency area is becoming a bigger problem. This shows that users need to be more aware of these scams and regulations need to be tightened.
Since digital currencies are becoming more popular, scams involving them are likely to get more complex and happen more often. Users and platforms must stay aware and be careful.
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