In 2022, cybercriminals began to increasingly use various phishing techniques to steal digital assets, carrying out more than 5 million attacks on crypto users.
Analysts at software developer Kaspersky found that in 2022, attackers conducted 5,040,520 crypto phishing attacks, a 40% increase over 2021, with 3,596,437 phishing attacks targeting cryptocurrency users.
Kaspersky analysts also revealed that online scams were the most popular way to defraud crypto users last year. At the same time, researchers noted that the use of malware to attack traditional financial instruments slightly decreased.
According to Kaspersky experts, the growing popularity of crypto phishing is directly related to the “havoc that occurred on the crypto market” last year. Thus, based on their survey, every seventh respondent suffered from cryptocurrency phishing. Analysts couldn’t predict, however, whether the trend would continue this year.
The main tricks used by scammers in 2022 included:
- conducting fake airdrops;
- sending emails with links to scam websites;
- forging websites of crypto wallets and exchanges;
- using social engineering techniques to lure confidential information of crypto users.
Olga Svistunova, Security Expert at Kaspersky, says that fraudsters keep coming up with new sophisticated ways to cheat, because many crypto users still consider digital assets as a way of “getting rich quick with minimal effort.” In Olga’s opinion, crypto users should educate themselves and be aware of cyber threats in order to protect their assets.
Last year, Web 3.0 users were exposed to a new type of phishing attack — Ice Phishing. Kaspersky analysts also found out that one in three U.S. cryptocurrency users encountered a theft of digital assets.
