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A growing number of users are falling victim to an old trading bot scam that has been rebranded to take advantage of the hype surrounding artificial intelligence, says blockchain security firm SlowMist.
In an October 13 post on Medium, SlowMist reported that cybercriminals have adapted to current topics by using OpenAI's ChatGPT on behalf of their rogue bots in an attempt to take advantage of the current AI hype.
The fake bots used to be marketed as "Arbitrage MEV Bot Uniswap", but they have now been rebranded as "Arbitrage MEV Bot ChatGPT".
"By attaching the ChatGPT label to their scammers, they manage to attract attention and appear more trustworthy," the firm writes.
"The scammers claim that they used ChatGPT to generate the bot's code, which helps dispel users' doubts about any malicious intent in the code," it added.
SlowMist reports that cybercriminals have renamed the old scam to the ChatGPT MEV arbitrage bot to take advantage of the hype surrounding artificial intelligence.
SlowMist explained that scammers lure users with the promise of a trading bot that will help make big profits by tracking new tokens and significant price fluctuations on Ethereum.
Victims are instructed to create a MetaMask wallet and follow a fraudulent link on the open-source platform Remix. Once the code is copied and the bot is deployed, users are prompted to fund a smart contract to "activate" it.
"The more ETH they deposit, the greater their estimated profits. But when the user clicks "start", the deposited ETH disappears - they are sent directly to the scammer's wallet through a backdoor encoded in the smart contract," writes SlowMist.
"Outgoing funds are either transferred directly to exchanges or moved to temporary storage addresses," the company said.
Victims are instructed to create a MetaMask wallet and click on the Remix scam link as part of the scam.
SlowMist reports that they have discovered three scam addresses using these techniques to trick unsuspecting users.
Since August, one of them has stolen 30 Ether (ETH) worth more than $78,000 from more than 100 victims. Two others stole 20 ethers worth more than $52,000 from 93 victims.
SlowMist said that the scammers use a "broad network approach" - stealing small amounts from many victims, who often do not bother to try to recover the funds because the effort required to do so exceeds the stolen amount.
"Because individual casualties are relatively small, many victims do not have the time or resources to seek justice," writes SlowMist.
"This allows the scammers to continue their activities, often rebranding the scam under a new name," the report said.
According to a blockchain security company, there are many videos on the internet, especially on YouTube, promoting this type of scam.
It warns that red flags indicating that a video promotes fraud could include video and audio desyncing or recycled footage from a different source.
An unusually high number of comments with praise and thanks at the top of the thread, and in subsequent updates, the scheme is called a scam, can also be a red flag.
In an October 13 post on Medium, SlowMist reported that cybercriminals have adapted to current topics by using OpenAI's ChatGPT on behalf of their rogue bots in an attempt to take advantage of the current AI hype.
The fake bots used to be marketed as "Arbitrage MEV Bot Uniswap", but they have now been rebranded as "Arbitrage MEV Bot ChatGPT".
"By attaching the ChatGPT label to their scammers, they manage to attract attention and appear more trustworthy," the firm writes.
"The scammers claim that they used ChatGPT to generate the bot's code, which helps dispel users' doubts about any malicious intent in the code," it added.
SlowMist reports that cybercriminals have renamed the old scam to the ChatGPT MEV arbitrage bot to take advantage of the hype surrounding artificial intelligence.
SlowMist explained that scammers lure users with the promise of a trading bot that will help make big profits by tracking new tokens and significant price fluctuations on Ethereum.
Victims are instructed to create a MetaMask wallet and follow a fraudulent link on the open-source platform Remix. Once the code is copied and the bot is deployed, users are prompted to fund a smart contract to "activate" it.
"The more ETH they deposit, the greater their estimated profits. But when the user clicks "start", the deposited ETH disappears - they are sent directly to the scammer's wallet through a backdoor encoded in the smart contract," writes SlowMist.
"Outgoing funds are either transferred directly to exchanges or moved to temporary storage addresses," the company said.
Victims are instructed to create a MetaMask wallet and click on the Remix scam link as part of the scam.
SlowMist reports that they have discovered three scam addresses using these techniques to trick unsuspecting users.
Since August, one of them has stolen 30 Ether (ETH) worth more than $78,000 from more than 100 victims. Two others stole 20 ethers worth more than $52,000 from 93 victims.
SlowMist said that the scammers use a "broad network approach" - stealing small amounts from many victims, who often do not bother to try to recover the funds because the effort required to do so exceeds the stolen amount.
"Because individual casualties are relatively small, many victims do not have the time or resources to seek justice," writes SlowMist.
"This allows the scammers to continue their activities, often rebranding the scam under a new name," the report said.
According to a blockchain security company, there are many videos on the internet, especially on YouTube, promoting this type of scam.
It warns that red flags indicating that a video promotes fraud could include video and audio desyncing or recycled footage from a different source.
An unusually high number of comments with praise and thanks at the top of the thread, and in subsequent updates, the scheme is called a scam, can also be a red flag.
