Highlights
- Despite the security, the vast ecosystem of applications and websites which make up the broader crypto ecosystem contains numerous attack vectors.
- Chainalysis study revealed that hackers used traditional scamming methods to steal over US$7.7 billion from victims in 2021.
- Recently, hackers scammed potential buyers out of their Solanas for the limited-edition NFTs they were hoping to receive from Fractal.
When you enter the crypto realm, you may come across scammers who are now taking full advantage of the ongoing frenzy around cryptocurrency to con potential victims and steal their digital assets.
In spite of the security of the cryptography used to secure NFTs and cryptocurrencies, the vast ecosystem of applications and websites which make up the broader crypto ecosystem contains numerous attack vectors.
Furthermore, according to a Chainalysis study, in 2021, hackers used traditional scamming methods like "rug pull" (a criminal manoeuvre in which crypto developers abandon a project and flee with the money of investors) or exploited loopholes in crypto systems to steal over US$7.7 billion from victims.
Recently, they targeted the crypto space's youngest star, Solana.
How did scammers get their hands on Solana?
Hackers scammed potential buyers out of their Solanas for the limited-edition NFTs they were hoping to receive from Fractal, the gaming-based NFT project of Twitch co-founder Justin Kan.
Hackers took advantage of the project's popularity, exploiting a flaw in a Discord bot to send a link that emptied buyers' wallets of SOL. Scammers connected cryptocurrency wallets to the link, expecting to receive NFTs, but found their Solana cryptocurrency holdings had been emptied and transferred to the scammer's account. Tim Cotten, the owner of another NFT gaming enterprise, assessed the transaction's value at US$400 million.
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