200,000 phishing attacks targeting crypto detected this year

Since the beginning of 2022, well-known cybersecurity services firm Kaspersky detected and prevented almost 200,000 attempts to steal users’ digital currencies and credentials to their wallets via phishing. The number of such attempts almost reached 50,000 in April, which is half of the indicators for the first quarter of 2022. Crypto wallets are the primary target for scamming and malicious activity.

With the boom in digital currencies observed over the past five years, Kaspersky experts have seen various cybercriminal tactics used to steal cryptocurrency – from luring victims with gifts sent by crypto exchanges to distributing Trojanized DeFi wallets. Crypto wallets are the primary target for scammers because they are the initial place of storage for cryptocurrency and deal with large amounts of virtual money.

In 2022, Kaspersky have recorded 193,125 phishing attempts aimed at potential crypto investors or users interested in cryptocurrency mining. Throughout the first quarter of this year, experts discovered about 107,000 attempts. Then in April alone there were nearly 50,000 attempts – that is nearly half of the previous quarter in a single month.

Fraudsters mimic the original crypto wallets’ websites and lure victims to enter a personal seed-phrase, a secret phrase of 12 or 24 words that ensures the security of the wallet, along with a password and private key. Once the user shares their secret phrase, they’re redirected to the real website, however, their account and all of their savings are now in the scammer’s hands.