Russian cybersecurity and antivirus provider Kaspersky revealed that phishing attacks from cryptocurrencies they experienced a 40% year-over-year increase in 2022. The company detected 5,040,520 cryptocurrency phishing attacks in the year, up from 3,596,437 in 2021.
A typical phishing attack involves contacting investors through fake websites and communication channels that imitate official companies. Users are then asked to share personal information such as private keys, ultimately giving attackers unwarranted access to wallets and assets.
Although Kaspersky was unable to predict whether the trend would increase in 2023, phishing attacks are maintaining momentum in 2023. Most recently, in March, cryptocurrency wallet provider Trezor issued a warning against attempts to steal cryptocurrency from users by tricking investors into entering their recovery phrase on a fake Trezor site.
In a 2022 Kaspersky survey revealed by Cointelegraph, one in seven respondents admitted to being affected by cryptocurrency phishing. Although phishing attacks mainly consist of sweepstakes scams or fake wallet pages, attackers continue to evolve their strategies.
According to Kaspersky, “Cryptocurrencies remain a symbol of getting rich quick with minimal effort”which entices scammers to innovate their techniques and stories to lure unsuspecting cryptocurrency investors.
What is phishing and how to fight it
To the phishing we could call it as “uncle’s tale” of the digital age. This is the most widespread online fraud, through which cybercriminals steal user data – especially from banks – to empty their accounts.
Phishing is usually carried out using a apocryphal email -It can also be via text message to the cell phone- that pretends to be from the client’s bank and with which they are asked to update a series of personal data. The argument is usually that a series of changes were supposedly made and therefore require updating the information base.
The message includes a link that redirects to another page, which also simulates the appearance of the bank, where they request that the data be entered. By doing so, the user provides confidential information without suspecting that it is a scam. To make it even more credible, the system often redirects the user to the bank’s official page, and in this way they try to hide the deception.
It may not be immediate, but the scammers’ next step will be to empty your bank account or make online purchases with your money.
How to avoid phishing?
A first recommendation is always enter homebanking by entering the URL of the site ourselves, or use the official application of our bank.
In case you suspect that you are being a victim of phishing, immediately change your homebanking username and password. Also call your entity to report the situation.
Some of the emails that are put together for the scam seem so real that it is very difficult to perceive the risk of scam. One recommendation is to observe the email address from which it was sent, to be sure that it matches the one used by the bank.
Source: Ambito
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