Crypto scams pushed by social engineering soared in 2024, with analysts warning that scammers are more and more focusing on celebrities and tech leaders.
In a Feb. 11 analysis report, analysts at blockchain forensic agency Merkle Science revealed that in 2024, scammers focused high-profile figures by hacking their accounts. After gaining entry, they shortly promoted faux token launches created on Pump.enjoyable, a platform for minting tokens on Solana.
One such incident was the Aug. 29 hack of soccer star Kylian Mbappé’s X account. The attacker promoted a faux MBAPPE meme coin on Solana, which shortly hit a $460 million market cap earlier than collapsing and leaving traders with over $1 million in losses.
“By compromising influential figures and trusted platforms, hackers exploit credibility to manipulate investors at scale.”
Merkle Science
In complete, the New York-headquartered agency recognized 36 circumstances of such scams final 12 months. Celebrities have been probably the most focused cohort, making up 33% of circumstances, the report reads. Tech figures and tech firms adopted, making up 30% and 19% of circumstances, respectively. Authorities companies and shopper manufacturers have been hardly ever hit, every making up simply 5% of incidents. On common, victims had 2.3 million followers, the agency notes.
Most assaults occurred on X because the social community accounted for 75% of all circumstances. YouTube accounted for 19% and official web site hacks for five%, with scammers utilizing ways like phishing hyperlinks and bypassing two-factor authentication, in line with Merkle Science. The 2 principal rip-off varieties have been rug pulls and phishing, each making up 88% of all crypto-related assaults that occurred in 2024.
