In 2024, “pig slaughter” scams were the biggest risk to cryptocurrency users, costing $3.6 billion, according to Cyvers, a security firm affiliated with Web3.
the a report He points out that there is a 40% annual increase in the number of cyber attacks in 2024 compared to 2023, with 165 incidents occurring at a cost of $2.3 billion in damages. The amount is still 37% lower than the fraud peak in 2022, but complex schemes and breaches are up this year.
Access control breaches accounted for most of this damage, with 67 incidents occurring for a total value of $1.9 billion. Other attack vectors included vulnerabilities in smart contracts, resulting in losses of $456.8 million over 98 incidents, and processing poisoning attacks, resulting in losses of $68.7 million in one major instance. These attack methods demonstrate vulnerabilities in blockchain networks and decentralized applications that scammers continue to exploit.
Ethereum (Ethereum) was the blockchain network that scammers operated on, and it accounts for the majority of cryptocurrency fraud losses. The data included about 150,000 addresses and 800,000 fraudulent activity transactions, Cyphers said. Cyphers pointed to the ease of access to blockchain as a major factor in the fraudulent schemes, which they said allowed scammers to send more than 100,000 small incentive payments to victims as part of their grooming tactics.
Educating users about these incidents is essential in the fight against access control breaches, believes Didi Lavid, CEO of Cyvers. He noted that increasing transparency in exchange operations and enhancing user vigilance are also essential to reduce the success rate of these types of frauds.
What is the meaning of slaughtering pigs?
The term “pig slaughter” refers to a technique in which victims are groomed through repeated contact by scammers, often starting with spam that lures them into fake cryptocurrency schemes. With trust guaranteed, the way is open to deploy small amounts of cash to withdraw larger pools in the hundreds of millions, often in Tether (USDT) through less transparent exchanges such as Binance, HTX, OKX, and Crypto. com, and Coinbase. Illicit cash is typically laundered through decentralized and centralized exchanges before being disbursed.
Crypto scams are on the rise
The most important attacks in 2024 include MinisterXwhich lost $235 million due to a vulnerability in its multi-signature wallet system in one of the largest hacks of the year.
DMM exchange It was hacked and lost $305 million when attackers compromised a private key in the platform's Bitcoin (Bitcoin) hot wallet. It was another high-profile breach. In addition, hackers compromised the devices used to access the platform, resulting in a loss of $50 million to Radiant Capital. In turn, $52 million worth of funds were drained from BingX when the attackers gained access to the exchange's hot wallets and transferred funds across networks. Multiple. . As such, these incidents expose recurring vulnerabilities in many cryptocurrency exchanges.
restoration
However, even in the face of these losses, some progress has been made in rehabilitation efforts. In 2024, approximately $1.3 billion was returned to victims, especially on-chain investigators like ZackXBT Bug bounty programs. The study indicated that the first quarter of 2024 witnessed the largest number of accidents compared to any other quarter of the year, reaching 53. The largest amount, about $760 million, was lost in the third quarter of 2024, while the fourth quarter showed the least activity and losses.
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