A Russian Cybersecurity firm known as Dr. Web revealed in a recent report that a crypto scammer targeting Dogecoin holder is on the rage. Thus far as reported, over 10,000 people have been affected while about $24,000 worth of Dogecoins is already stolen.
The Scammer’s Strategy
The trending Dogecoin scammer is noted to operate under the aliases Investimer, Hyipblock, or Mmpower, and utilizes a wide range of commercial trojans that are popular amid the dark web forums.
The hacker is noted to target Dogecoin holders by creating numerous phishing websites that replicate actual online resources. One of such website is a fake cryptocurrency exchange that is noted to require a special client software which is a trojan.
Also, another fake cryptocurrency exchange that steals the user’s deposit and a fake Dogecoin mining pool is also involved in the scam act. The potential victim usually downloads the supposed client application from a password protected archive. This password blocks the user’s AntiVirus software from scanning the archive and removing it while it downloads.
The scammers also use a fake Dogecoin mining browser extension to perpetrate their malicious acts. Furthermore, there is an Ethereum based lottery that promises to pay winnings in Dogecoin. But the lottery is maliciously set to profit the owners alone, while participants cannot win it. This lottery is noted to have a total of 6,000 registered participants at the moment.
The scammer has developed different methods to operate the malicious acts of scamming and hacking of Dogecoin. The trend is an example of the increasing trend of insecurity in the cryptocurrency space even as growth is seen on a daily basis. Security of cryptocurrency holdings is one the menaces battling the industry, as it constitutes one of the reasons barring the massive adoption of cryptocurrency in the world.
Different solutions have been proffered to the menace. However, the trend is increasing. Recently, a U.K. based security firm, G4S started offering the service of protecting cryptocurrency in cold storage.
The report of financial research firm Autonomous NEXT and Crypto Aware revealed that about $1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrencies had been stolen between 2012 and the first half of 2018. Meanwhile, over $800 million worth of crypto was recorded to have been stolen in the first half of 2018, while 85% of all cases go unreported.