According to data from Scam Sniffer, phishing scammers amassed over $300 million by targeting approximately 260,000 victims across EVM chains. The first half of 2024 continued to be lucrative for these scammers, who managed to steal $314 million worth of cryptocurrency, reflecting a 6.44% increase compared to 2023, as reported by the blockchain research firm.
In an X thread, Scam Sniffer detailed that out of the total, approximately $58 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from 20 victims, with one victim losing $11 million—making it the second-largest theft victim in crypto history. According to Scam Sniffer, scammers typically exploit phishing signatures like Permit, IncreaseAllowance, and Uniswap Permit2 to gain control over victims’ assets without further permissions.
“Most of the major thefts involved assets in Staking, Restaking, Aave Collateral, and Pendle tokens,” noted Scam Sniffer.
Victims are often ensnared through phishing comments from impersonated accounts on X. Once on the phishing site, they are deceived into executing seemingly legitimate transactions from their non-custodial wallets, resulting in unauthorized access to funds.
Earlier in July, SlowMist, the parent company of Scam Sniffer, reported freezing approximately $20.66 million in stolen funds across 13 platforms in Q2, highlighting private key leaks, phishing, and fraud as significant vulnerabilities in the industry.
Meanwhile, a new threat is emerging in the crypto sphere as per Bitget’s latest report, indicating that deepfake-related crypto fraud has caused losses exceeding $79.1 billion since 2022, with a staggering 245% surge in 2024 alone. Despite international efforts to combat this issue, Bitget warns that quarterly losses from deepfake usage could reach “around $10 billion by 2025.” The exchange also predicts that 2024 may conclude with $25.13 billion in losses from such crimes.
