Crypto phishing incidents have risen sharply over the past four weeks, up 50% since February. The attacks most affected the Ethereum network, on which most tokens and NFTs are created. In March, Ethereum accounted for the most stolen crypto assets. Scam Sniffer estimates losses at $52 million.
The BNB and Base blockchains were also affected by phishers. In March 2024, $7 million worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen from the BNB Chain blockchain, created by the world's largest crypto exchange Binance. And from the Base Chain network, developed by the American crypto exchange Coinbase, crypto assets worth more than $3 million were stolen. Compared to February, the amount of funds stolen from Base, grew by an astronomical 500%.
The cybercriminals’ favorite digital assets were ERC-20 tokens—$64 million worth of them were stolen in March. Second place went to Ether itself ($5 million), and third place went to collectible tokens: the total losses of NFTs amounted to $1.9 million.
Scam Sniffer analysts warned that a significant portion of phishing attacks are carried out using fake accounts on the social network X. Fake comments on behalf of celebrities or well-known crypto companies are often published on the platform, misleading users. Over the past two weeks, Scam Sniffer has identified more than 1,517 fake Twitter accounts promoting scams.
According to the same analytical platform, in February the number of phishing attacks decreased by 75% compared to January. About 57,000 users became victims of cryptocurrency scammers, whose total losses amounted to about $47 million.
Source: Bits
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