Trading in crypto currencies continues to enjoy unbroken popularity and is therefore attracting more and more cyber criminals. Kaspersky experts have identified more than 1.500 fraudulent websites worldwide and blocked more than 70.000 attempts to visit malicious sites worldwide.
Cyber criminals use a variety of methods to attract prospects in these fraud attempts. This includes:
- Fake crypto exchange websites: Users are promised an alleged voucher to top up their crypto exchange account. In order to redeem this, however, a verification payment of up to 0,005 Bitcoin (around US $ 200) must be made, which goes directly to the cyber criminals.
- News of counterfeit sales of graphics cards and other mining equipment: In order to buy the equipment, the user must make an advance payment. After this payment, the cybercriminal sender of the ads stops communicating.
- Phishing pages with various contents: The aim of the pages is to steal the private keys that allow cyber criminals to gain access to all digital assets associated with a crypto wallet.
In order to give the pages more credibility, cyber criminals usually host the websites on popular domains with the extensions .com, .net, .org or .info, as well as on cheap domains such as .site, .xyz, .online, .top, .club or .live. The phishing websites are characterized by a high level of detail. Real data, such as Bitcoin prices from existing exchanges, are often integrated on false crypto exchanges. The attackers know that people who invest in or are interested in crypto are often more technically savvy than the average user.
“Swap Vaccine for Bitcoins”
“For some time, many people have been interested in cryptocurrencies; Attackers don't miss the opportunity to use this to their advantage. Both those who want to invest in or mine cryptocurrencies and the holders of such currencies are therefore targeted by scammers. For example, one of the scam schemes we uncovered was as follows: users received a message about the sale of an exclusive coronavirus vaccine earlier than officially planned and only available to those who own Bitcoins. This type of fraud was particularly prevalent when vaccines were just becoming available. The user then visited the said website, which listed a contact through which to pre-order the vaccine. The victim then had to make an upfront payment in bitcoins, with the money going to the cybercriminals’ account and the person receiving nothing in return.”
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