Kaspersky has already blocked 200,000 cryptocurrency scams in 2022

Crimes involving cryptocurrencies are on the rise this year. Security firm Kaspersky said it has already identified and blocked about 200,000 attempts to steal digital assets in the first half of 2022 alone.

According to a company report, the “bait” brands most used in the scams are the digital asset exchange Binance and the crypto wallets Electrum and MetaMask.

As Alexey Marchenko, head of research specializing in information theft at Kaspersky highlighted, fake messages are the main form of attack:

“Fraud using cryptocurrencies is already a reality. Investors need to be especially careful to avoid them — especially false messages. After all, they are simple to create and exploit people’s inattention and lack of knowledge,” he said.

According to Kaspersky, by the end of April alone, the company had registered more than 50,000 blocks related to schemes that try to steal cryptocurrencies or credentials from investors.

Airdrop and malware scams

Some of these scams use airdrops as bait to steal users’ wallets. The most recent case was perhaps a fraudulent LUNA 2.0 airdrop.

At the end of May there was a fake LUNA 2.0 token airdrop. The fraud was identified by blockchain security firm Peck Shield.

Another type of recurring crypto scam involves sending malware. Late last year, for example, a new malware called Echelon, focused on cryptocurrency wallets, was identified.

The malware in question was being distributed on the Telegram messaging platform via an infected file and aimed to steal crypto assets.

phishing scams

Phishing scams, when cybercriminals try to impersonate legitimate organizations to steal users, are the most common.

According to Kaspersky, more than 193,000 phishing attempts against investors have been blocked so far in 2022.

Last month Discord servers from crypto-related projects were targeted by phishing attacks.

One of the targets was the play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain game Axie Infinity. But the attack also affected non-fungible token projects (NFTs) such as the Moonbirds and PROOF collections.

Virtual sneaker company RTFKT, which partnered with Nike to launch a virtual sneaker, was also a target of the attack.

Also according to the Kapersky report, the most used crypto company to deceive users is Binance, with 75% of cases. Then comes the Electrum cryptocurrency wallet, with 10% of cases, and MetaMask, with 9%.

According to the company, fake apps from these brands can accompany viruses such as trojans, spyware and ransonware.