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Scammers Attack Potential Crypto Investors and Miners

Kaspersky Lab reports that it has discovered more than 1,500 resources with the help of which scammers attack potential crypto-investors or users who are interested in cryptocurrency mining.

Experts say that cybercriminals usually locate sites in popular domain zones: .com, .net, .org, .info, as well as in zones where domain acquisition is cheap: .site, .xyz, .online, .top, .club, .live.

A distinctive feature of phishing and other types of cryptocurrency fraud is the high level of detail in website preparation. For example, on fake crypto exchanges, real data are often loaded from existing exchanges, in particular, cryptocurrency rates. Attackers understand that people who are interested in investing in this area are often more tech-savvy.

Therefore, they complicate their techniques in order to get to other people’s data and money.

The researchers list the following among the most common schemes used by attackers:

  • creation of fake crypto-exchange sites: in this case, the user is allegedly given a coupon for replenishing an account on the exchange, but in order to use it, users need to pay a verification payment (usually no more than 0.005 bitcoin or about $ 200), which becomes the prey of cybercriminals;
  • Sending messages about fake sales of video cards and other mining equipment: in order to purchase equipment, the user needs to make an advance payment. After transfer of money, the authors of ads stop communicating;
  • creation of phishing pages with various content to steal so-called private keys, which allow gaining access to all digital assets associated with a crypto wallet.

Recently, many have become interested in cryptocurrencies, and attackers do not miss the opportunity to use this to their advantage. At the same time, both those who want to invest or mine cryptocurrency and simply the holders of such funds can become their targets.

For example, one of the schemes we discovered was the following: users received a message about the sale of an exclusive coronavirus vaccine out of turn and only for those who have bitcoins. This type of fraud was especially prevalent when the vaccine was not widely available. The user went to the site where the contact was indicated in the messenger, to which it was necessary to write about the pre-order of the vaccine. Then it was necessary to make an advance payment in bitcoins. The money went to the cybercriminals’ account, but the person received nothing in return.says Alexey Marchenko, head of the content filtering methods development department at Kaspersky Lab.

Recall by the way that we recently wrote that Attackers stole $600 million from the Chinese DeFi platform Poly Network, although then one of the hackers returned $260 million, but it does not seem that this story is close to completion.

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Daniel Zimmermann

Daniel Zimmermann has been writing on security and malware subjects for many years and has been working in the security industry for over 10 years. Daniel was educated at the Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany and currently lives in New York.

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