Category Archives: Scam Digest

Crypto Scam Digest – October 21, 2022

Two Men Sentenced to Prison for SIM-Swapping Crypto Scam

Two Massachusetts men were sentenced to two years in prison for stealing the social media accounts of crypto executives and using SIM-swapping to bypass 2FA protections. DOJ

$1.6M Stolen from an FTX Account

Details are unclear but it seem that hackers exploited automated trading bot API 3commas in order to take control of the user’s account and make thousands of trades. WU Blockchain

Localbitcoins User “Mustangy” Sentenced in Federal Court for Money Laundering

AKA Mustafa Goklu, Mustangy posted ads on localbitcoins.com offering to pay cash for up to $99,999 in Bitcoin. The cash he was offering came from his drug trafficking business. DOJ

Coinbase Users Sue over $21 Million in Crypto Scam Losses

Nearly 100 Coinbase users are taking the company to arbitration for failing to protect them from mining pool scams. Forbes

Three States Take Action Against Slotie NFT

Three US states have filed cease-and-desist orders against Slotie NFT for selling NFTs without proper registration and funneling the proceeds into metaverse casinos. Coindesk

Crypto Scam Digest – October 14, 2022

Scam Victim Withdraws BTC, Gets Toilet Paper

A Pennsylvania man received a briefcase which supposedly held cash from his crypto profits, but it turned out to contain toilet paper. And he paid an extra $9K for the code to open the briefcase. PA Homepage

WhatsApp Scam Impersonating Scary Spice

A scammer sent WhatsApp messages to stars and friends of Mel B (aka Scary Spice) asking for crypto donations to “help African children dying of thirst”. Yahoo!

Binance Hacked for Two Million BNB

An exploit of weaknesses in cross-chain bridges allowed a scammer to steal 2M Binance Coin worth about $580M. Yahoo!

French Police Charge Bored Ape NFT Thieves

Bored Ape NFT owners fell for a phishing scam that claimed it would animate the valuable NFTs. $2.5M in NFTs were stolen in all. Decrypt

Indian Police Target Scam Cloud Mining App

31 people fell victim to scam cloud mining app “CCH Cloud Miner” and police have filed a case against 3 of the scammers involved. Inc42

“Pig Butchering” Scams Increasing on Tinder

Scammers are using Tinder to meet victims, then dating them for weeks in order to set them up for a crypto theft. NY Post

Crypto Scam Digest – October 7th, 2022

Kim Kardashian Settles Charges for Illegal Crypto Promotion
Kardashian paid $1.26 million in penalties for promoting EthereumMax on social media without disclosing how much she was paid to do so. SEC.gov

Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Just A Bit of Coin
Plaintiffs claim that Just A Bit of Coin promised to build bitcoin mining rigs for customers but never delivered, blaming supply chain issues. ClassAction.com

Brazilian Police, US Homeland Security Bust Crypto Fraud Ring
A multi-year investigation has ended with the execution of 20 search and seizure warrants against a crypto scam ring based in Curitaba, Brazil. ICE.gov

Malicious DApp Is Stealing Crypto from Other Crypto Scammers “Water Labbu” is inserting malicious code into crypto scam websites and emptying the wallets of visitors of those sites before they even have a chance to get scammed the usual way. Trend Micro