The sudden spike in the wider cryptocurrency market capitalization has lured millions of new investors and hundreds of billions in fresh funding, but it is also true that scammers and fraudsters have also explored many opportunities resulting in severe losses.
Most recently Scam Sniffer, a blockchain security firm, has argued that bad actors seem to be combining social engineering and phony telegram verification bots that deploy malware in the systems to wipe out holdings from the wallets.
In an X post dated December 10, Scam Sniffer notes that the scammers have been creating fake X accounts to lure individual crypto enthusiasts, once they get connected the bad actors redirect the victim to the telegram group with the promise of investment insights.
Once the victim joins the group, they are asked to verify through an identified fake verification bot ‘OfficiaISafeguardBot’ which “creates artificial urgency” with a short verification window, the post of Scam Sniffer further reads.
In its findings, the firm attached it has tracked dozens of similar cases where similar malware has resulted in the loss of private keys of the majority of wallet holders.
The firm quoted “ It’s currently unclear if there are other malicious bots. However, it’s obviously simple for them to impersonate others as well.”
Crypto losses to surpass $3 billion in the ongoing year?
Since the beginning of this year till writing the broader cryptocurrency market has lost over $1.20 billion. The list of affected firms includes WazirX, DMM, Orbit Chain, BtcTruk Hot Wallet Hack, UwV Lend hack, and others.
Several available reports note that since the first day of 2024 till writing the market has lost roughly $2.20 billion in collective incidents.
Immunefi revealed that two major incidents were responsible for the majority of financial losses in November. DeFi platform Thala Labs experienced a loss of $25.5 million, while DEXX, a memecoins trading terminal, faced a $21 million setback.
The report highlighted that all recorded incidents during the month targeted decentralized finance platforms, marking a shift from centralized finance. DeFi-related breaches accounted for the entirety of the losses reported.
North Korean hacker groups continue to be among the most active in carrying out such illegal activities, responsible for over 45% of cryptocurrency thefts annually.
In early August 2024, the Ronin Bridge, an Ethereum-based sidechain of Axie Infinity, was targeted in a series of attacks.
Crypto Market Price Updates
At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency market capitalization was at $3.48 trillion, with a staggering surge of 19 percent in the past few sessions, similarly, Bitcoin was at $97,851 adding over 39 percent since the beginning of this year.
The intraday gainer’s list is topped by Bitget Token trading at $3.08 with an addition of 22.29 percent followed by Raydium which grew 19.61 percent reaching $5.46 as of writing.
Mog Coin, Pepe, Curve Dao Token, and Maker remain the most troubled cryptocurrencies in the past 24 hours losing an average of 5 to 10 percent.
