$47 Million Lost to Phishing Scams in February: Crypto Sleuth

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$47 Million Lost to Phishing Scams in February: Crypto Sleuth
  • Crypto sleuth Scam Sniffer reveals that about $47 million in assets were stolen in February through phishing scams.
  • On February 6 alone, the phishing scam resulted in a massive $6 million loss.
  • Ethereum mainnet accounted for 78% of the total thefts, while ERC-20 tokens comprised 86% of the total assets stolen.

According to crypto sleuth Scam Sniffer’s February Phishing Report, the month saw a loss of about $47 million through phishing. While over 57,000 individuals were victimized, Scam Sniffer revealed that fake accounts on X emerged as the major cause of the phishing attack.

According to a chart provided by the sleuth, a massive theft of more than $6 million occurred on February 15. The second-highest theft was marked on February 28, with a loss of about $3 million. The chart revealed that all 29 days of the month witnessed crypto thefts and scams.

Source: Scam Sniffer

The sleuth wrote, “Most victims were lured to phishing websites through phishing comments from impersonated Twitter accounts.” In addition, Scam Sniffer asserted that a majority of the thefts were caused by signing phishing signatures like Permit, IncreaseAllowance, and Uniswap Permit 2.

As per the findings, Ethereum mainnet accounted for 78% of the thefts. At the same time, Scam Sniffer identified ERC-20 tokens as the main assets stolen, comprising 86% of the total assets stolen. However, the sleuth noted that the total number of victims who lost more than $1 million is comparatively lesser than that of the previous month. The number decreased by 75% in February.

In related news, in the last week of February, business intelligence firm MicroStrategy’s X account was hacked, posting malicious links to a fake airdrop. Scam Sniffer revealed that a user lost more than $420K to the scam just minutes after the malicious link appeared on MicroStrategy’s X page.

Amidst increasing phishing scams, Ripple CTO David Schwartz boasted that he is immune to phishing, adding that he is “too smart to fall for this kind of thing.” Schwartz’s message came following Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s revelation that he lost 213 million XRP, worth more than $110 million, through unauthorized access. 

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