Microsoft warned us this week: Fraud has never been more present in the cryptocurrency market. The Redmond firm was not mistaken. According to a recent report from Elliptic, in the NFT market alone, the amount of fraud for this year is already over 100 million euros. While the entire crypto sphere has been going through dark times for several months, this figure highlights just how intense hacker activity is in 2022.
Elipstic estimates that hackers earn an average of €300,000 per successful scam. However, the company explains that this amount is likely higher, given the fact that not all victims have publicly disclosed that they have been scammed. Still, some were later resold much cheaper, like the stolen Bored Ape Yacht Club collection.
Hackers were busy defrauding NFT enthusiasts
How do hackers go about deceiving their targets? According to Elliptic, 23% of them prefer fake accounts on social networks, especially dating apps, which are becoming a particularly lucrative market for them in 2021. Another very common technique, some hackers go so far as to promote their fake exchanges on Google and other search engines.
“People who are not vigilant looking for the fake NFT platform will see a series of phishing links at the top of their search results”, explains the Elliptical. Finally, 52% of hackers would turn to Tordano Cash to launder all that money. The platform, which manages the equivalent of 137 million euros in crypto assets this year, is particularly “Prolific for malicious players in the NFT market”.
