Crypto Scammers Rise to Steal Charity Money, Investors Worried

Deepfakes, romantic scams, and crypto frauds are some of the most used hacking tactics by criminals all over the world. In the first quarter of 2022, global cybersecurity services firm NortonLifeLock reported it had stopped more than 18 million attacks in India, and over 195,794 daily.

Norton is a consumer cyber-security company that has protection solutions and is leading in its industry at the top.

According to the firm, around 60,000 were phishing attempts and 32,000 were tech support scams, with fraudsters now deploying deepfakes and crypto schemes to get access to financial or personal information.

Deepfakes, romance scams, and crypto scams are three diverse methods that thieves use to commit online frauds, according to NortonLifeLock. It claimed that bad actors were using deepfakes to defraud customers and disseminate misinformation.

In addition, the Norton Labs team has seen deepfakes used to build fake social media profiles, fuel charity scams and other fraudulent ploys, and distribute misinformation pertaining to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

Scammers took $29 million in Bitcoin from philanthropic crypto investors in 2021, according to Norton Labs, and this figure is expected to rise in 2022 as the crypto market’s value rises and scammers take advantage of world events like the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine to steal donations from philanthropic crypto investors.

The NortonLifeLock blog mentioned,

New threats emerge as cybercriminals combine tactics. By presenting realistic disinformation via deepfakes in a phishing scam that collects payment in cryptocurrency, a consumer would have little to no recourse,

The romance scam is the third channel, which preys on those who are yearning for love and connection. Scammers use fictitious online identities to carefully choose potential victims, frequently favoring widowed or divorced women.

Once scammers have found a victim, they spend time cultivating the appearance of a romantic connection in order to earn the victim’s confidence and manipulate and steal from them.

“Romance scammers are highly trained con artists; they know exactly what to say to make the victim feel important and loved. As a result, these scammers can be very believable and convincing to the untrained eye,” the blog reported.

In other news, Norton finds crypto scams rising in Australia. It has blocked over 38 million attacks in Australia between January and March this year, the equivalent of about 404,000 threats each day, according to the business.

That includes 480,000 phishing attempts and 60,000 tech support frauds, according to the Consumer Cyber Safety Pulse study. Similarly, the organization claims that the murky nature of cryptocurrency transactions has led to an increase of cyberattackers duping profit-hungry investors, particularly those new to the industry.

Darren Shou, the NortonLifeLock Chief of Technology commented, “We are here to help consumers navigate a changing digital world where you can’t always believe what you are seeing.”

According to the firm, when fraudsters mix approaches, new hazards develop. Consumers would have no choice if realistic deception was presented by deepfakes in a phishing fraud that collected payment in bitcoin.