Zero-Transfer Phishing Scams: A Growing Threat in the Crypto Space
Zero-transfer phishing scams have become an increasing problem in the world of cryptocurrency, with criminals making off with millions of digital assets from unsuspecting victims.
Investors Lose $451M USDT to Phishing on Tron
One of the latest techniques used by scammers is zero-transfer phishing. This tactic involves attackers targeting a victim’s transaction history by making zero-value transactions from their wallet. Surprisingly, scammers don’t even need the user’s private key for this. By sending transactions of zero value, the scammer’s addresses show up in the user’s transaction history, luring them into the trap.
These scammers often create addresses that closely resemble those the victim has previously sent tokens to, starting and ending with the same characters. When unsuspecting crypto users fall for this trick, they accidentally copy and paste the attacker’s address from their transaction history, setting it as the recipient for the transfer and unknowingly sending their assets to the scammers.
On the Tron network, victims have lost a staggering 451 million Tether (USDT) to zero-transfer phishing scams. Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated incident. Similar reports of significant losses to phishing scams have been seen on other blockchains as well.
More Losses to Phishing Scams
In a recent incident, a crypto exchange Kraken wallet user suffered a loss of 4.46 million USDT after falling victim to a phishing address. This incident occurred on the Ethereum blockchain.
Another attack targeted the crypto trading tool None, forcing it to shut down operations after losing 41.52 ETH and 11,7000 NONE tokens worth $76,500 to a phishing address.
In one of the most noteworthy crypto phishing attacks, a prominent crypto whale with extensive on-chain experience lost $24.23 million in liquid-staked Ethereum.
Even Tether, a renowned USDT issuing company, had to freeze $20 million USDT after a user mistakenly sent it to a phishing scammer in August.
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