Cyber attackers within the crypto space have evolved their methods with a focus on attacking human judgment rather than breaking computer systems.
A recent phishing scam caused a loss of $3 million for a crypto investor who didn’t authenticate a contract.
The user inadvertently signed a malicious blockchain transaction because he failed to verify the entire wallet address involved in the transfer.
The phishing URL appeared trustworthy in presenting similar initial and ending characters to cheat the victims.
The attacker exploited this minor yet important human error, withdrawing $3.05 million in USD Tether (USDT) instantly from the wallet.
Fake Links Used In Crypto Phishing
Lookonchain, a cryptocurrency analytics company, announced details of the occurrence on Wednesday through its authenticated platform and cautioned.
Phishing scams such as these commonly incorporate fictitious links or agreements aimed at taking sensitive information like individual wallet keys.
Most people don’t know that checking the start and end of an address alone can have catastrophic financial implications.
CertiK, a blockchain security platform, announced that the most destructive threat in 2024 was phishing attacks, which managed to steal more than $1 billion.
In a total of 296 phished attacks registered, a minimum of three separate incidents alone generated over $100 million losses apiece.
Human Errors Drive New Crypto Scam Surge
In a case, an investor gave a detrimental approval 458 days prior and had lost $900,000 due to a late but successful fraud.
Cryptocurrency security firm SlowMist authenticated this instance but re-emphasized the possible future losses of blindly verifying malicious contracts.
Most astonishing of all was the May 2024 case wherein a scammer conned $71 million with a wallet poisoning scam.
However, a traced Hong Kong IP address and public pressure compelled the scammer to refund the entire sum within two weeks.
To tackle such fraud, Binance’s security team developed an algorithm that traced 15 million adulterated addresses across the world.
These efforts reflect growing concern as human-targeted attacks rise while traditional system hacks decline across the crypto space.
CertiK also pointed out that most scams remain unreported, which means actual losses from phishing must be higher than current estimates indicate.
With more take-up of crypto, experts warn investors to re-check every transaction and avoid rushing onto new platforms.
