Scam
Nifty News: Price drops on ‘Cryptohouse’ with NFT decor, mint your personality as an NFT and more
Waning interest in a North Hollywood crypto-themed home A crypto-friendly house in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, is seemingly struggling to sell, as the property has seen its price reduce three times in a little over four months. The so-called “Cryptohouse,” as stated on the glowing neon sign in its kitchen, was listed for sale at $1.2 million in October 2022. As of Jan. 5, its asking price is now $949,000. The impressive custom neon sign never lets you forget just where you are. Image: Zillow The four-bed, three-bath home sees the listing agents boasting in the property description of its spacious and flowing floor plan ideal for “savvy investors.” For unknown reasons, the description doesn’t mention its tasteful wallpaper choices, which include multiple nonfungible tokens (NFTs) f...
Nifty News: Fake Pokémon NFT game spreads malware, ‘Jai Ho’ singer to launch metaverse and more
Hackers hide malware in fake NFT game A phishing website purporting to offer a Pokémon-branded nonfungible token (NFT) card game has been spreading malware to unsuspecting gamers, a cybersecurity firm has warned. The website, which at the time of writing was still online, also claims to offer an NFT marketplace, with a link to buy tokens, and even an area to stake NFTs — all based on the popular Japanese media franchise. However, an arm of the South Korean cybersecurity firm AhnLab warned the public about the website on Jan. 6, noting that instead of downloading agame, users were actually downloading a remote access tool that allows hackers to take control of their device. A screenshot of the phishing website. The “Play on PC” link at the bottom of the image downloads the malware. The...
Robocallers have upped their scam game and they’re after your crypto
Professional scam organizations are targeting cryptocurrency users following the collapse of FTX, initiating millions of automated calls and text messages in an attempt to swindle information and funds. Clayton LiaBraaten, senior executive adviser at Truecaller — an app that helps identify scam callers and messages — spoke to Cointelegraph, scammers often closely follow crypto news to better prey on their victims: “Fraudsters love volatility and current events. Anytime they can try to surf the contours of something very disruptive in the marketplace they have a great deal of success.” LiaBraaten said that Truecaller also saw an increase in scam communications relating to Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies when the market started to become volatile earlier in 2022. He added “age...
Charges laid over alleged ‘crypto mining’ Ponzis that netted $8.4M
United States prosecutors have laid charges in two separate cases against nine people who founded or promoted a pair of cryptocurrency companies alleged to be Ponzi schemes that netted $8.4 million from investors. On Dec. 14 the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed the indictment, alleging the purported crypto mining and trading companies IcomTech and Forcount promised investors “guaranteed daily returns” that could double their investment in six months. In reality, prosecutors say both firms were using the money from later investors to pay earlier investors, while other funds were spent on promoting the companies and buying luxury items and real estate. “Lavish expos” were held in the U.S. and abroad, along with presentations in small communities, that lur...
Sam Bankman-Fried deepfake attempts to scam investors impacted by FTX
A faked video of Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has circulated on Twitter attempting to scam investors affected by the exchange’s bankruptcy. Created using programs to emulate Bankman-Fried’s likeness and voice, the poorly made “deepfake” video attempts to direct users to a malicious site under the promise of a “giveaway” that will “double your cryptocurrency.” Over the weekend, a verified account posing as FTX founder SBF posted dozens of copies of this deepfake video offering FTX users “compensation for the loss” in a phishing scam designed to drain their crypto wallets pic.twitter.com/3KoAPRJsya — Jason Koebler (@jason_koebler) November 21, 2022 The video uses appears to be old interview footage of Bankman-Fried and used a voice emulator to...
FTX to give a ‘one-time’ $6M compensation to phishing victims
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX will provide around $6 million in compensation to victims of a phishing scam that allowed hackers to conduct unauthorized trades on certain FTX users’ accounts. FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried posted in a Twitter thread on Oct. 23 that the exchange generally doesn’t award compensation to its users “phished by fake versions of other companies in the space” but in this case, it would compensate users. Bankman-Fried said that this was a “one-time thing” and FTX would “not do this going forward.” “THIS IS NOT A PRECEDENT,” he wrote, clarifying it was only the accounts of FTX users that would be reimbursed. 14) But this once, we’ll do it; roughly $6m total. (To be clear, only for FTX accounts! Hopefully other exchanges will comp theirs.) BUT AGAIN N...
Sneaky fake Google Translate app installs crypto miner on 112,000 PCs
Crypto mining malware has been sneakily invading hundreds of thousands of computers around the world since 2019, often masquerading as legitimate programs such as Google Translate, new research has found. In an Aug. 29 report by Check Point Research (CPR), a research team for American-Israeli cybersecurity provider, Check Point Software Technologies revealed the malware has been flying under the radar for years, thanks partly to its insidious design which delays installing the crypto mining malware for weeks after the initial software download. .@_CPResearch_ detected a #crypto miner #malware campaign, which potentially infected thousands of machines worldwide. Dubbed ‘Nitrokod,” the attack was initially found by Check Point XDR. Get the details, here: https://t.co/MeaLP3nh97 #crypto...
BitBoy Crypto sues fellow YouTuber Atozy for defamation over shilling claims
Two prominent YouTube content creators are set to lock horns in a legal battle over a cryptocurrency video allegedly promoting a project that ended up being a scam. Bitboy Crypto, a YouTube channel founded by Ben Armstrong, produces a variety of content focused on cryptocurrency news, projects and tokens and trading advice. The channel has been active since February 2018 and has over 1.4 million subscribers. The channel is known for its news pieces and trading-focused videos with headlines like Top 3 Coins To Outperform Ethereum! (Strong Short Term Play)typifying the type of content disseminated to viewers. While these videos purport to offer trading advice, the channel has a disclaimer clearly stating that Armstrong is not “a professional advisor in business areas involving finance, crypt...
8 sneaky crypto scams on Twitter right now
Cybersecurity analyst Serpent has revealed his picks for the most dastardly crypto and nonfungible token (NFT) scams currently active on Twitter. The analyst, who has 253,400 followers on Twitter, is the founder of artificial intelligence and community-powered crypto threat mitigation system, Sentinel. In a 19-part thread posted on Aug. 21, Serpent outlined how scammers target inexperienced crypto users through the use of copycat websites, URLs, accounts, hacked verified accounts, fake projects, fake airdrops and plenty of malware. One of the more worrisome strategies comes amid a recent spate of crypto phishing scams and protocol hacks. Serpent explains that the Crypto Recovery Scam is used by bad actors to trick those who have recently lost funds to a widespread hack, stating: “Simply pu...
Social media blamed for $1B in crypto scam losses in 2021
The Federal Trade Commission has labeled social media and crypto a “combustible combination for fraud,” with nearly half of all crypto-related scams originating from social media platforms in 2021. Published on June 3, the report found that as much as $1 billion in crypto have been lost to scammers throughout the year, which was more than a five-fold increase from 2020, and nearly sixty times up from 2018. New analysis finds consumers reported losing more than $1 billion in #cryptocurrency to scams since 2021. Most of the losses consumers reported were to bogus cryptocurrency investment scams: https://t.co/MYGTcaw1aS #DataSpotlight /1 — FTC (@FTC) June 3, 2022 As of March 31, 2022, the amount of crypto lost was already approaching half of the 2021 figure, showing that momentum ...
Targeted phishing scam nets $438K in crypto and NFTs from hacked Beeple account
Digital artist and popular non-fungible token (NFT) creator Mike Winkelmann, more commonly known as Beeple, had his Twitter account hacked on Sunday, May 22 as part of a phishing scam. Harry Denley, a Security Analyst at MetaMask, alerted users that Beeple’s tweets at the time containing a link to a raffle of a Louis Vuitton NFT collaboration were in fact a phishing scam that would drain the crypto out of users’ wallets if clicked. ⚠️ Beeple’s Twitter account has been compromised (ATO) to post a phishing website to steal funds. 0x7b69c4f2ACF77300025E49DbDbB65B068b2Fda7D0xF305F6073CFa24f05FF15CA5b387DD91f871b983 pic.twitter.com/0MPNwOPlEu — harry.eth (whg.eth) (@sniko_) May 22, 2022 The scammers were likely looking to capitalize on a real recent collaboration betwe...
Rare Bears Discord phishing attack nabs $800K in NFTs
Recently launched NFT project, Rare Bears, was hit with an attack, after a hacker posted a phishing link in the project’s Discord channel, stealing nearly $800,000 in NFTs. Analysis from blockchain security firm Peckshield detailed that the attacker was able to steal 179 NFTs, including Rare Bears and other NFTs from various collections, including CloneX, Azuki, a “mfer” from artist sartoshi, and 6 LAND tokens used for The Sandbox metaverse. According to on-chain analysis, most of the NFTs were sold, netting the hacker 286 ETH, worth over $795,500, most of which was promptly put through Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer used to obfuscate the source of funds. A slate of similar phishing scams have occurred in recent months on Discord, suggesting some teams need to more carefully consider t...
