- Ads tied to phishing scams have been discovered on Etherscan.
- Unsuspecting users risk losing all their crypto assets by following these fake ads.
- This article explains how you can stay safe.
Wherever value goes, so often do scammers. While the playing ground and the tools these scammers employ have evolved, the playbooks have remained largely unchanged. The same holds true for the crypto industry.
In the latest instance, these malicious actors are targeting users of the popular Ethereum blockchain explorer Etherscan with a wallet-draining phishing scam wrapped in unassuming website ads.
What is this Etherscan ad phishing scam, and how does it work? This article offers a breakdown to help you avoid these types of scams.
What Happened on Etherscan?
In an X post on Sunday, April 7, X user “McBiblets” warned that some of the ads on Etherscan were phishing scams, putting the website’s users at risk of losing their assets.
Sharing McBiblets’ post, Web3 security firm Scam Sniffer noted that these ads already run rampant on platforms like Google, X, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. Scam Sniffer attributed the appearance of these ads on Etherscan to lax filters on Coinzilla and Persona, the ad aggregators relied on by the website.
How the Etherscan Phishing Ad Scam Works
By clicking the scam ads, users are directed to phishing websites where they are requested to connect their wallets, unbeknownst to them, to a wallet drainer, a tool that automates the process of completely depleting a crypto wallet of its assets.
Sponsored
The example highlighted by McBiblets uses an ad purportedly from Beefy (BIFI), a multichain yield optimizing project. McBiblets demonstrated that the ad directed users to a phishing website linked to an Angel Drainer. According to data compiled by Scam Sniffer as of January 2024, drainers tied to this would-be “drainer-as-a-service” have stolen over $36 million in crypto assets from nearly 50,000 victims.
How to Stay Safe
Phishing scams aim to get victims to divulge information or grant permissions that will give scammers access to their funds. To achieve this, scammers often create a sense of urgency while also playing on emotions like greed and fear to compel the mark to act hastily and irrationally. Below are tips to help you avoid falling for the recent Etherscan phishing ads and scams like it.
- Take a moment to think and research before you click an ad.
- Always double-check URLs to make sure they match the official project URLs before consenting to connect your wallet.
- Contact solution providers when unsure.
- In general, always be wary about requests for information that should typically remain private, as even custom support teams would not ask of them. This sensitive information could include passwords and wallet seed phrases.
- Be wary of links and attachments from unknown senders.
On the Flipside
- At the time of writing, there have been no reports of users losing assets to the Etherscan phishing ads.
- As highlighted by Wu Blockchain, this is not the first time phishing ads have appeared on Etherscan. In May 2022, the popular blockchain explorer disclosed that it had received reports of scam pop-ups on its website, warning users against confirming such transactions.
Why This Matters
Phishing scams have become increasingly prevalent in crypto in recent years, with various tactics, including fake ads, netting scammers nearly $300 million in 2023 alone. The presence of these phishing ads on Etherscan puts millions of Ethereum users at risk of losing their crypto assets.
Read this for more on the Phishing Ad scams:
Crypto Scammers Target Etherscan Users with Massive Phishing Ads
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