Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the CEO of one of the most popular crypto exchanges in the world, took to Twitter to issue a warning for crypto enthusiasts to remain alert about the various phishing websites that can often come up in Google Searches. For instance, when searching “CoinMarketCap”, the query may turn up some phishing sites along with the authentic ones.
Google displays phishing sites when users search CMC. This affects users adding smart contract addresses to MetaMask using these phishing sites. We are trying to contact Google for this, and in the meantime alerting users about this through social channels. pic.twitter.com/3q4860Jl4H
— CZ
Binance (@cz_binance) October 27, 2022
Research Reveals 15 New Scams Per Hour
Fintech risk monitoring company Solidus Labs recently conducted research into the crypto scams carried out so far in 2022. Solidus Labs further launched a crypto assessment tool that aims to track real-time information about new crypto projects that show signs of potentially being a scam. The on-chain Threat Intelligence Tool (TIT) was introduced on October 27th, 2022.
According to the study, an approximate 20% more crypto scams have taken place in 2022 than in the entirety of 2021, and Solidus Labs’ data indicates that rug pulls make up the majority of fraudulent activity in the space. The crypto security company went on to disclose which blockchains play host to the highest percentage of such shady projects.
Rug pulls are the most common scam in crypto and, until today, the vast majority have gone undetected. Solidus data indicates that more than 188,000 rug pulls have been launched on ETH and other blockchains — far more than previous estimates.
Learn more: https://t.co/PP2pEMvToZ
— Solidus Labs (@Solidus_Labs) October 27, 2022
Reportedly, 12% of crypto projects on Binance’s native BNB Smart Chain blockchain exhibit signs of fraudlent behavior, particularly rug pulls. In comparison, Ethereum plays host to approximately 8% of scams and phishing exploits in the sector. Shady ERC-20 tokens have resulted in the loss of more than $910 million in stolen crypto funds, transferred through crypto exchanges.
The most shocking revelation was Solidus’ claim that they identify 15 new crypto scams every hour across the 12 major platforms. Moreover, the majority of these rug pulls, scams, and phishing websites often go unnoticed, unreported, and unsolved.
Social media has long played a key part in the crypto crime scene, with constant Twitter security breaches enabling bad actors to use verified accounts to push their fraudulent tokens and phishing schemes. In combination with the alleged prevalence of bots on these sites, social media serves as the perfect breeding ground for fraudlent activity.
Binance Becomes a Twitter Shareholder
In related news, Friday 28th marks the finalization of Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. The $44B deal has officially been completed, and the world’s richest man and Tesla CEO has changed his profile description to “Chief Twit”.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao contributed $500 million to Musk’s acquisition deal, thereby becoming a Co-Owner of the micro blogging company. The Binance chief was modest about the development, calling Binance “small potatoes”.
We are small potatoes, just a tiny bit.
— CZ
On the Flipside
- The situation raises the question of who is to blame for the rising intensity of rug pull scams.
- Google approved fraudulent websites for paid advertising through Google Adwords, making them somewhat culpable.
- BNB Chain hosts 12% of rug pulls and scams, making the network the largest breeding ground in the market.
- The most secure blockchain, according to the stats, is Polygon (MATIC) with just 1.2% of scam projects.
Why You Should Care
2022 is on course to go down as the most active year for fraud so far in the history of crypto. Analyzing these cases could be crucial in preventing future rug pulls.
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