Group-IB, an international cybersecurity firm, found that fake domains have been used in a lot of crypto scams during the first half 2022. These domains have increased fivefold and many of them, even though they are registered by Russian registrars were designed to reach English- and Spanish-speaking investors in crypto.
Crypto Scams Domains Grow Immensely In H1 2022
The first half of 2022 saw an explosion in the number of domains being used to commit cryptocurrency scams. Group-IB (a Singapore-based security company) reported that the number of domains used to welcome Youtube fraud streams has increased fivefold in the first half this year. Over 2,000 domains were created.
Most of these cryptocurrency scam sites use the names of famous cryptocurrency-linked personalities to attract their victims. Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador and Cristiano Ronaldo are just a few. There are also other well-known cryptocurrency advocates like Elon Musk or Michael Saylor.
Over 60% of domains in this category are owned by Russian entities, but they are directed to Spanish or English-speaking cryptocurrency investors as their main target.
Youtube Fake Crypto Stream Market
Due to the presence of an underground market that offers software to set up a Youtube-hosted Crypto stream and the attention these streams get, this scam can grow. These streams reach between 10,000 and 20,000 viewers on average, with many of them being attracted to keywords like ETH, Ark Shiba, XRP, or Shiba. Group-IB provided this information:
Scammers have access to the following resources: an exchange platform that allows them to hack Youtube accounts and viewer boosting service, manuals and website editors. They also have admin panel developers and domain name designers.
Deepfakes can be used by hackers to generate live holograms for exchange employees to fool token teams representatives.
You can use these services to make these pages, as well as the artwork to get people to invest. It is important to remain vigilant regarding too-good-to be true crypto giveaways. Users should also verify that these sources are legitimate.
You have to tell us what you think of the new surge in websites promoting crypto-scams. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
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