Blackmail and ransomware are the most common crypto scams, a new research shows. Explore how to protect your funds.
Cryptocurrencies have promised innovation but have also seen their fair share of wrongdoing, especially in the form of scams that have left investors counting their losses.
According to Chainanalysis, while the first half of 2023 saw a reduction in crypto scam revenue by nearly $3.3 billion compared to 2022, totaling just over $1.0 billion, ransomware remained a persistent issue. Ransomware attackers managed to extort approximately $175.8 million more during this period than in the previous year.
Meanwhile, in the third quarter of 2023 alone, the number of crypto hacks and scams skyrocketed by nearly 60% compared to the same period in 2022, with nearly $686 million lost to fraudulent activities. A notable incident within this period was the Mixin hack on Sep. 25, where attackers made away with roughly $200 million.
Let’s delve deeper and explore various types of scams, focusing on how they operate, their impact on individuals and the crypto community, and measures to mitigate such fraudulent activities.
Prevailing crypto scams in 2023
A new report by CoinKickOff provided a granular look into this dark facet, categorizing the scams that prevailed in the first half of 2023. The researchers collected 251,806 abuse reports from chainabuse.com, linked to 87,722 distinct blockchain addresses. After removing duplicates, they had 232,455 unique reports to analyze.
Type of scam | Cases |
Ransomware | 3376 |
Se |
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Author: Ankish Jain