Presently, scams constitute 1% of activities in the crypto sphere. This year the most widely discussed scam so far is the Twitter hack.
Scammers have stolen $381 million so far this year. This was reported by the blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. The company which based some of its findings on the open-source database by Cryptoscamdb showed that the losses by crypto users in scams so far has not matched that of 2019.
According to the release, crypto scams dwarfed other crimes that have occurred in the digital currency space. 2019 though is still regarded as the year of massive losses in the industry considering that scams took up 79% of crimes associated with the industry last year. This was a reflection of several high profile Ponzi schemes that went burst such as the PlusToken scam.
Crypto Scams May Be Underreported
Despite the many scams reported in the industry, analysts believe that this year may be underreported. There may still be many fraudulent activities not yet reported by victims.
Presently, scams constitute 1% of activities in the crypto sphere. This year, the most embarrassing scam so far is the Twitter hack that took over some high profile accounts and demanded that the followers send BTC to a wallet address. The report stated that the July 15 Twitter hack is nothing new. It added that the scammers”took in 13.14 BTC worth approximately $120,000 over the course of the afternoon.”
It stated that this type of scam also known as reputation trading accounts for 71% of scams experienced in the industry since June 2018. The report said that most of the funds from the July 15 attack have been moved to other wallets.
The scammers were able to steal 21 bitcoins in the short span by convincing users. Even though Chainalysis wasn’t forthcoming with more information regarding the movement of the coins, in an apparent caution not to compromise investigations, the report stated that “as of 4:30 PM ET July 22, 2020, roughly 9 BTC is sitting in 23 wallets, 8 BTC has been sent to mixing services like Wasabi Wallet, and 4 BTC has been sent to other entities.”
Caught a Whale
Meanwhile, WhaleAlert, the popular site that tracks the movement of large volumes of BTC has confirmed that a deposit of 1.8526 BTC or the equivalent of $17,589 was sent to the scammers wallet.
The report highlighted the importance of blockchain analysis in tracking the movement of coins under such circumstances. Though the setback is the challenge posed by the mixing of stolen coins.
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