A spam campaign spreading through direct messages on Twitter is stealing crypto-currency from affected users, Kaspersky has warned.
Users of the platform are asked for help to withdraw hundreds of thousands of dollars from a stranger on Twitter’s crypto account. However, to help the stranger, victims are encouraged to create and pay for a VIP account on the scam domain, which leads to them being robbed of their coins.
With Twitter's almost 400 million active monthly users, direct messages from unfamiliar people may not initially come as much of a surprise to Twitter users.
In this scam, the criminals ask for urgent help, pretending they’re having trouble accessing their account on a crypto-currency exchange.
They ask users to help them withdraw a certain amount of crypto-currency from their wallet, specifying the domain to enter, the username, password, and the amount of crypto-currency in their wallet, often reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Kaspersky researchers believe the actor could promise victims a small amount of money in exchange for help with withdrawals. However, this is just a trap to target as many users as possible.
The malefactor also specifically uses a domain with a space before the dot to bypass mail protection tools.
By following the link, the victim ends up on a site claiming to be an investment platform. Once the user enters the given username and password, they access the spammer’s account, where they find the specified amount.
However, the site is poorly laid out, listing only an e-mail address, and no details of the creators of the platform, which should be an indicator that something is amiss.
To withdraw the currency, the victim is asked to provide their own wallet address, blockchain, and, surprisingly, an additional password.
However, the victim does not have this additional password, and the platform offers the victim a way to transfer funds directly within the system, which removes the need for an additional password and asks them to create an account with VIP status, which costs a small sum.
As soon as a victim registers in the system and enters their crypto wallet data to pay for VIP status, the funds are stolen from their account. In a nutshell, the user is induced in one way or another to create a VIP account and pay for it, but the victim does not get anything in exchange and only loses their coins.
Andrey Kovtun, a security expert at Kaspersky, says crypto-currency remains an extremely hot target for attackers, as more and more users open crypto-currency wallets and convert their currencies into coins.
Blockchain also enables attackers to steal funds from victims without leaving a trace, which doesn't make things any better. Kaspersky expects more and more other sophisticated examples of crypto scams to appear soon, so all users who use crypto should keep their accounts, wallets, and coins secure, he urges.
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