Over time the development and deployment of fake crypto apps has reached its peak resulting in severe financial losses. Slowmist, a blockchain analysis firm, reported that ‘BOM’, a bogus application, has wiped out $1.82 million in crypto from the users.
In the report published on February 27, 2025, notes that on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2025, a few users have reported unauthorized access to their crypto assets held in their wallets.
It is worth noting that the identified application ‘BOM’ has been using mnemonic and private key stealing techniques to get the personal data of the users.
‘BOM’ demanded for the access of photos & media
Slowmist’s report also notes that the BOM application was demanding permission to access the media and photos of the devices of the victims. Once the bad actors get the approval, they steal wallet keys and other important phrases to access the digital asset wallet of an individual.
The blockchain analysis firm termed BOM a scam as its major identified motive was to loot the users by penetrating deep into the devices of the victims.
“The primary theft address (0x49aDd3E8329f2A2f507238b0A684d03EAE205aab) has stolen funds from at least 13,000 users, with illicit gains exceeding $1.82 million,” Slowmist notes.
As per security experts granting permission to access the photos, media, and other files of a device might lead the user into trouble, as hackers also use these images to blackmail the victims for more money.
The firm also notes in its report, “ On iOS, the app first requests permissions, deceiving users with a message claiming the access is necessary for normal operation. This behavior is highly suspicious — as a blockchain-related application, it has no legitimate reason to require access to the photo gallery.”
Hackers have stolen Tether, Dogecoin, and Wrapped Bitcoin.
Are hackers leveraging the long-going bull run of crypto?
With the sudden surge in the trading price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it has been reported several times that a hacker or a group of hackers have continued to trouble the digital asset users.
Mostly it was noted that Bybit, one of the leading crypto exchanges, was hacked by South Korea-based hackers, resulting in losses of over $ 1 billion, yet the original source of assets transferred is yet to be identified.
It is crucial to note that from October 03, 2024, to February 25 mid, the number of crypto hacks and breaches has reached.
Majority of times it has been observed that when prices of crypto are at their peak, hackers and scammers are more active during a bull run. In 2024 the wider crypto market lost more than $2 billion in digital assets.
Until publishing, the crypto market cap was $2.86 trillion with a decline of 2.80%, and the market dominance of Bitcoin was 59.77%, and the fear and greed index was at 20, determining fear in the sentiments.
