Phishing scammers have made over $300 million through EVM chains by targeting around 260,000 victims, according to data compiled by Scam Sniffer.
The first half of 2024 was another lucrative period for phishing scammers as they stole $314 million worth of cryptocurrencies, a 6.44% increase compared to 2023, according to data compiled by blockchain research firm Scam Sniffer.
in X threadOf this amount, the company explained, nearly $58 million in cryptocurrency was drained from just 20 victims, with one victim losing $11 million, making it the second-largest theft victim in crypto history. Scam Sniffer says scammers typically target victims by exploiting phishing signatures such as Permit, IncreaseAllowance, and Uniswap Permit2, which allow them to take control of the victim’s assets without further permission.
“Most of the major thefts involve assets in Staking, Resttaking, Aave Collateral, and Pendle tokens.” Scam Sniffer
Victims are often lured by phishing comments from impersonated accounts on X. Once they land on the phishing site, they are tricked into making seemingly legitimate transactions from their non-custodial wallets, resulting in unauthorized access to funds.
Earlier in July, Scam Sniffer’s parent company SlowMist announced that it had frozen nearly $20.66 million in stolen funds across 13 platforms in the second quarter, highlighting private key leaks, phishing, and fraud as major vulnerabilities in the industry.
Meanwhile, a new threat appears to be emerging in the crypto space as Bitget’s latest report reveals that deepfake fraud has resulted in losses of over $79.1 billion since 2022, with a staggering 245% increase in 2024 alone. Despite international efforts to combat the issue, quarterly losses from deepfakes could reach “around $10 billion by 2025,” the exchange warns. Bitget also predicts that 2024 will likely end with losses of $25.13 billion from such crimes.