Researchers from San Diego State University have developed a fully automated fraud detection system called GiveawayScamHunter, which uncovered a list of 95,111 scams created by 87,617 accounts on X (formerly known as Twitter) between June 2022 and June 2023.
Pay Attention to the Lists on X
The Lists feature on social media giant X allows users to customize, organize, and prioritize the posts they see on their timeline. Users can add others to lists without their permission, and the only way to remove oneself from a list is to block the list creator. Researchers pointed out that this situation provides an opportunity for scammers.
According to a research article published on August 10th, more than 365 victims fell into traps claiming to offer free cryptocurrency and lost an estimated $870,000 worth of crypto. The team also added that approximately 44% of the spam accounts were still active when the research results were compiled, despite reporting the findings and identified accounts to X.
The team emphasized the urgent need to prevent the spread of scams on X, shed light on the spreading strategies and behaviors of scammers, as well as the scale of victims and losses, and protect users from becoming targets of this type of fraud.
$656 Million Worth of Cryptocurrency Stolen in the First Half of the Year
Web3 security company Beosin published a report on July 1st stating that $656 million worth of cryptocurrency was lost in fraud, hack, and rug pull cases in the first half of the year. According to the report, victims lost $471.43 million in 108 protocol attacks, $108 million in various phishing scams, and $75.87 million in 110 rug pull scams.
When compared to the previous year, $1.91 billion in losses were reported in the first quarter, while $1.69 billion in losses were reported in the second quarter. In the first quarter of 2023 alone, this figure was recorded as $656 million, indicating a significant decrease in stolen cryptocurrencies compared to the previous year.
Beosin analysts noted in the report, “Approximately $215 million of the stolen assets, which accounts for 45.5%, has been recovered. In contrast, only 8% was recovered in 2022. $113 million of the stolen assets was transferred to crypto mixers: $45.38 million to Tornado Cash and $68.14 million to other mixers.”
