Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said some of the most common methods of duping crypto investors include false advertisements claiming to sell mining equipment and fake websites posing as crypto exchanges.
In the first half of 2021, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky discovered over 1,500 bogus businesses targeting potential crypto investors and miners.
According to Kaspersky, malware crypto miners have already targeted 0.60 percent of users in South African countries.
False adverts claiming to sell mining equipment and bogus websites posing as crypto exchanges are among the most popular techniques of duping naive people, according to the survey. Kaspersky’s Africa enterprise sales manager, Bethwel Opil, said:
According to Kasperskly’s data based on anonymized statistics, 0.85 percent of Kenyan crypto investors and 0.71 percent of Nigerian crypto investors were victims of crypto-miner malware, with investors from Ethiopia (3.68 percent) and Rwanda (3.22 percent) facing the biggest threats.
The low percentages do not indicate the threat is insignificant, according to Bethwel Opil, Kaspersky’s Africa enterprise sales manager:
“Crypto-miner malware has been identified as one of the top 3 malware families rife in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria at present, which we believe emphasises that as cryptocurrency continues to gain momentum, more users will likely be targeted.”
The survey also claims that bogus adverts claiming to sell mining equipment and phony websites acting as crypto exchanges are the most popular techniques of duping naive crypto investors.
Users were compelled to make an upfront payment under the guise of advanced payment or verification, after which the scammers stopped speaking to them.
Phishing sites are also used by cybercriminals to get access to users’ crypto wallet private keys. Kaspersky’s head of content filtering methods development, Alexey Marchenko, said:
“Those who want to invest in or mine cryptocurrency, as well as those who simply store such assets, may find themselves on the radar of fraudsters.”
The Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG) of South Africa devised a roadmap for outlining the continent’s legislative framework for handling crypto assets in June 2021.
The IFWG also underlined the inherent danger and volatility of cryptocurrency investing, as well as 25 regulatory suggestions to combat money laundering, terror financing, and market manipulation.
