A wallet-draining service on TON ceased operations due to limited high-value users, redirecting efforts toward more lucrative Bitcoin targets.
A wallet-draining service operating on The Open Network (TON) has announced its closure, citing a lack of whales in the community. The drainer, which targeted TON wallets, informed followers on October 7 that it would be discontinuing its operations and suggested they switch to a Bitcoin-draining service instead.
This information was shared by Scam Sniffer, a crypto anti-scam solution, on its official X page. Based on the screenshot posted, the drainer stated that they are stopping operations on the network because TON does not have many whales and has a small community. The bad actor went further, saying that if its followers enjoyed draining the TON network, then they would definitely find Bitcoin more rewarding.
Within the same post, the wallet drainer informed users to send a direct message if they wanted to drain bitcoin and also noted that they would not be returning to the TON network.
This service closure follows increased interest from drainers in the TON ecosystem, as stated in a Cointelegraph interview with Blockaid co-founder Raz Niv. He pointed out that TON had become more attractive to hackers due to the value being transacted through its network.
TON has been seeing an increase in its total value locked (TVL) in recent times, which can be attributed to the several projects built on the network. In July, TON’s TVL went up to $608.65 million. Its integration with the messaging app Telegram has helped its surge in TVL. However, this rise in activity has also attracted malicious actors looking to exploit the increasing value of the ecosystem.
A malicious act was detected involving a TON drainer, where a fake $5,000 USDT transaction was used to lure users. The scammer exploited TON’s comment feature, which allows messages to be attached to transactions, using it to hide their true intent.
Once users confirmed the transaction, their funds were stolen. This method alone led to the loss of over 22,000 Toncoin tokens valued at more than $150,000, according to Scam Sniffer in May.
Phishing Scams and Growing Crypto Fraud
The crypto space has also been dealing with a rise in phishing scams, and September saw over 10,000 victims lose approximately $46 million to these attacks.
Scam Sniffer noted that the losses resulting from the phishing scam were $127 million, with an average of 11,000 victims each month.
One major phishing transaction resulted in the loss of over $32 million in crypto. These scams deceive users into connecting their wallets to fraudulent services, allowing hackers to withdraw funds without additional verification.
Thus, with the way in which bad actors are scamming, it is necessary for users to devise the means these bad actors could use, such as using compromised invite links or fake ads. They could also use bots or hacked accounts to flood Twitter comments and mentions with phishing links or harmful contents.
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