Tag Archives: crypto scams

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Nader Al-Naji with orchestrating a multi-million-dollar fraudulent crypto asset scheme involving the social media platform BitClout and its native token BTCLT. The securities regulator’s complaint revealed that Al-Naji raised over $257 million through unregistered offers and sales of BTCLT in November 2020. In the process, the exec allegedly misled investors by claiming the funds would...

Prominent on-chain sleuth ZachXBT has recently uncovered compelling evidence linking convicted UK hacker Gurv – whose real name is Gurvinder Bhangu – to the recent compromises of American actress Sydney Sweeney’s and ‘Breaking Bad’ actor Bob Odenkirk’s X accounts. This resulted in over $530,000 stolen through Solana meme coin scams. SWEENEY Pump and Dump On July 2nd, Sweeney fell victim to a SIM swap attack, and a link to a fraudulent meme coin based on Solana called SWEENEY,...

American multinational investment giant – BlackRock – has recently reported a significant increase in investment-related scams, particularly those that direct individuals to crypto investment websites or social media platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram. The company has cautioned its investors when engaging with individuals, websites, or social media platforms using BlackRock’s brand to offer training or investment opportunities. BlackRock Cautions Investors In its official...

Hong Kong native and crypto promoter Wong Ching-kit has entered the radar of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) for his suspected role in several criminal cases, the latest being a cryptocurrency scam involving over HK$3 million ($384,310). According to a report from the South China Morning Post, Interpol has issued a red notice against Ching-kit, alerting global law enforcement that he is wanted for one count of fraud and two counts of theft in Hong...

Russian-speaking threat actors who come from former Soviet Union are the primary drivers of various types of crypto-related cybercrime, including ransomware, illegal crypto exchanges, and darknet markets, according to the latest report by TRM Labs. In fact, ransomware groups that speak Russian were also found to be responsible for at least 69% of all ransomware earnings in 2023, totaling over $500 million. Russian-Speaking Threat Actors Dominate In its latest report,...

Three individuals have been arrested by the Hong Kong police suspected of defrauding a businessman out of HK$3.11 million, worth around $399,000, in crypto assets by offering him three bundles of counterfeit HK$1,000 banknotes. The officers reportedly confiscated 10,978 fake HK$1,000 banknotes during a raid on the Mong Kok office, where the fraudulent transaction took place last week. Cryptocurrency Fraud Bust A source told the South China Morning Post that the 44-year-old...

Multiple Filipino artists had their YouTube channels hacked, with the hackers streaming a deepfake video of XRP co-founder Brad Garlinghouse predicting XRP’s price to rise to $4. Obviously, the video was doctored to get unsuspecting users to follow instructions and have their funds drained. One of the biggest accounts from the series of hacks belonged to Ben&Ben, a pop band comprising nine members, boasting 3.02 million followers. A band member took to Ben&Ben’s official Facebook...

In a surprising turn of events, a scammer who stole $24.2 million from a victim has returned $9.3 million to them. The funds were sent via two transactions using the DAI stablecoin—the first transaction occurred on July 8 and was worth $5.23 million, and the second $4.04 million on July 13. They stole these funds on September 6, 2023, by orchestrating a phishing scam, siphoning away 9,579 Lido Staked Ether (stETH) and 4,850 Rocket Pool (rETH) tokens. Those tokens are worth about $47 million...

ImmuneFi’s recent report stated that the Binance-launched BNB Chain has witnessed over $1.6 billion in the previous four years since its launch in 2020. 23% of those losses, or $368 million, occurred due to rug pulls, putting BNB Chain ahead of all other blockchains in terms of rug pulls. For instance, Ethereum has reported $3.6 billion in losses since its inception, while only 4.4%, or $158 million, was attributed to rug pulls. Rug pulls occur when shady developers launch tokens and sell...

Private key leaks were identified as the leading cause of crypto thefts in the second quarter of 2024 by cybersecurity firm SlowMist’s investigative branch, MisTrack. The report highlighted many instances wherein users stored their private keys or mnemonic phrases in cloud storage services like Google Docs, Tencent Docs, Baidu Cloud, and Shimo Docs. Private Key Leaks Some users were also found to have shared their private keys or mnemonic phrases with trusted friends via...