X (Formerly Twitter) Remains a Haven for Scammers as Phishing Incidents Claim $104M

X (formerly known as Twitter) has been a popular hook for scammers for over a decade now. However, the tactics employed in these schemes continuously evolve.

What’s concerning is that many victims are still falling for scams because of misleading comments made by fake X accounts, leading them to phishing websites.

X Fakes Fuel Phishing Frenzy

According to Scam Sniffer’s February Phishing Report, a significant portion of the victims fell prey to such scams via X. Deceptive comments from impersonated X accounts were used as a means to lure unsuspecting individuals to phishing websites, where they subsequently became victims of such schemes.

A staggering 57,000 individuals succumbed to crypto phishing scams, resulting in collective losses of around $47 million. Surprisingly, this marks a significant decrease of 75% in the number of victims, losing over $1 million compared to the previous month.

Meanwhile, Ethereum mainnet accounts for the majority, comprising 78% of the total thefts, with ERC20 tokens being the primary assets targeted, making up 86% of the stolen funds. The thefts of ERC20 tokens were predominantly facilitated through phishing signatures like Permit, IncreaseAllowance, and Uniswap Permit2.

Additionally, many Wallet Drainers have begun utilizing Safe or Account Abstraction wallets as token approval spenders, further exacerbating the phishing issue.

The latest revelations from Scam Sniffer are consistent with SlowMist’s investigation, which uncovered widespread theft driven by phishing tweets. The security team reported numerous instances of theft, discovering that a significant portion of these incidents were facilitated by misleading comments under tweets from reputable projects.

In fact, about 80% of comments under tweets from such projects were identified as phishing scam accounts.

Malicious Crypto Ads on X

Despite Elon Musk’s promises to curb bots on the platform, not much has changed since his controversial takeover and the subsequent updates. Several reports suggest that cybercriminals are increasingly exploiting X advertisements to promote websites that result in crypto drainers, fake airdrops, and other scams.

Don’t be trapped in new scams.

A group of fraudulent influencers is shilling $BALLZ, grifters who previously shilled $Analos.

They are dumping a small amount of $BALLZ on you every second.
Using bot buying to trend on Dexscreener & Birdeye.

Note ; those who are shilling this… pic.twitter.com/wTtgvg8pq4

— Vasu Crypto (∎, ∆) (@0x_Lens) March 11, 2024

In 2023, X’s revenue dropped by 22% compared to the previous year, reaching $3.4 billion. The decline is primarily attributed to a significant decrease in advertising income over the last two years. Despite efforts, revenue from subscriptions and data licensing hasn’t compensated for this loss.