Researchers identified 95,111 scam lists related to airdrops on Twitter. The analysis was carried out using an automated AI system.
The team of researchers from San Diego State University developed GiveawayScamHunter, an AI-powered automated analytics system that detects fraudulent activity related to free crypto giveaways on X (ex-Twitter).
Specifically, the system identified 95,111 scam lists created between June 2022 and June 2023. They were created using 87,617 accounts, of which 43.9% were still active at the time of the report’s publication. The study also detected 327 fraudulent domain names and 121 fraudulent cryptocurrency wallet addresses that haven’t yet appeared in the relevant databases.
The reason for using lists is that this feature doesn’t require any authorizations and is a simple network tool. The AI algorithm was trained to identify scam listings through previously detected messages related to fraudulent airdrops.
According to the researchers, at least 365 users fell victim to fraudsters during this period, and the total amount of financial losses was approximately $872,000. Social networks are recognized as the most vulnerable area of the Web3 space. In particular, Twitter was massively used for promoting scam NFT projects with bots.
