A brutal fraud scheme brought criminals more than $1 million.
Information security company Sophos has revealed the actions of a fraudulent group specializing in The Pig Butchering campaigns. The group specializes in romantic scams, in which attackers convince the victim to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes. In 3 months of activity, the group stole more than $1 million.
The Sophos investigation began after one of the victims, under the pseudonym "Frank", told her story. Frank lost $22,000 after being approached on the dating app MeetMe by a woman who introduced herself as Vivian from Germany. During the investigation, 14 domains associated with the fraudulent operation were found, as well as dozens of almost identical trap sites.
Vivian, a member of the scam group, and Frank have been chatting on MeetMe for weeks. Vivian mixed romantic promises with persuasions to invest in cryptocurrency. Frank transferred the funds to a Trust Wallet account, from which the money was stolen by fraudsters 3 days later.
Sophos notes that such schemes thrive against the backdrop of the unsettled nature of DeFi applications for cryptocurrency trading. Fraudsters create fake pools of liquidity, which at first glance function just like the real ones. They accept deposits from unsuspecting investors and can even pay small commissions to create the illusion of legitimacy. However, at a certain point, fraudsters "break the cover" — that is, they activate the conditions pre-programmed in the smart contract or simply take all the funds from the pool for themselves. This moment is often called a "rug pull", and after it, the assets invested by gullible investors disappear.
Sophos said that such fake pools are becoming increasingly complex and attractive to scammers. The researchers noted that very few investors understand how legitimate cryptocurrency trading works, so it is easy for scammers to deceive ignorant victims.
Even after Sophos experts advised Frank to block the scam, Vivan was able to find Frank on Telegram and continued to persuade him to spend even more money using a long, emotional email, most likely created using a neural network.
Recall that the famous American TV host, investor, billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team Mark Cuban was the victim of a hacker attack . In total, in 10 minutes, the hacker stole about $900,000 worth of cryptocurrencies from Kyuban's hot wallet.
It was also reported that recently the TikTok platform has become a kind of field of activity for scammers organizing fake cryptocurrency sweepstakes. It is noteworthy that almost all videos on this topic are materials related to Tesla or SpaceX, parasitic on the fame and reputation of American billionaire Elon Musk. Users are asked to register an account and make a deposit, which is then simply stolen by fraudsters.
Information security company Sophos has revealed the actions of a fraudulent group specializing in The Pig Butchering campaigns. The group specializes in romantic scams, in which attackers convince the victim to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes. In 3 months of activity, the group stole more than $1 million.
The Sophos investigation began after one of the victims, under the pseudonym "Frank", told her story. Frank lost $22,000 after being approached on the dating app MeetMe by a woman who introduced herself as Vivian from Germany. During the investigation, 14 domains associated with the fraudulent operation were found, as well as dozens of almost identical trap sites.
Vivian, a member of the scam group, and Frank have been chatting on MeetMe for weeks. Vivian mixed romantic promises with persuasions to invest in cryptocurrency. Frank transferred the funds to a Trust Wallet account, from which the money was stolen by fraudsters 3 days later.
Sophos notes that such schemes thrive against the backdrop of the unsettled nature of DeFi applications for cryptocurrency trading. Fraudsters create fake pools of liquidity, which at first glance function just like the real ones. They accept deposits from unsuspecting investors and can even pay small commissions to create the illusion of legitimacy. However, at a certain point, fraudsters "break the cover" — that is, they activate the conditions pre-programmed in the smart contract or simply take all the funds from the pool for themselves. This moment is often called a "rug pull", and after it, the assets invested by gullible investors disappear.
Sophos said that such fake pools are becoming increasingly complex and attractive to scammers. The researchers noted that very few investors understand how legitimate cryptocurrency trading works, so it is easy for scammers to deceive ignorant victims.
Even after Sophos experts advised Frank to block the scam, Vivan was able to find Frank on Telegram and continued to persuade him to spend even more money using a long, emotional email, most likely created using a neural network.
Recall that the famous American TV host, investor, billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team Mark Cuban was the victim of a hacker attack . In total, in 10 minutes, the hacker stole about $900,000 worth of cryptocurrencies from Kyuban's hot wallet.
It was also reported that recently the TikTok platform has become a kind of field of activity for scammers organizing fake cryptocurrency sweepstakes. It is noteworthy that almost all videos on this topic are materials related to Tesla or SpaceX, parasitic on the fame and reputation of American billionaire Elon Musk. Users are asked to register an account and make a deposit, which is then simply stolen by fraudsters.
