Scammers Steal $55 Million Worth of Cryptocurrency in January
In January alone, scammers managed to steal $55 million worth of cryptocurrency and set up more than 11,000 phishing websites, according to Scam Sniffer.
The majority of these thefts took place on the Ethereum mainnet, with other platforms like Arbitrum, BNB, Optimism, and Polygon also being targeted.
Rise in Crypto Phishing Attacks
A recent thread on X by Scam Sniffer highlighted a concerning trend observed in January: a surge in phishing attacks. This increase coincided with heightened activity within crypto communities following a series of airdrops in the previous month.
executed numerous cyberattacks and rug pulls, resulting in the theft of $1.9 billion worth of cryptocurrency.
De.Fi’s REKT database recorded 455 incidents in 2023, with the largest hack amounting to $231 million attributed to Multichain. However, cybersecurity experts and white hat hackers were able to recover approximately $200 million from the total stolen amount.
Ethereum had the highest number of hacks, accounting for over 70% of the stolen funds in five out of twelve months in 2023. Access Control was the most significant vulnerability, leading to unauthorized access to hot wallets and average losses of $31 million per incident. Flash Loan attacks also resulted in a total stolen amount exceeding $275 million.
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