Discord and Twitter hacks result in crypto losses of $6m

Twelve major incidents security incidents occurred this week, leading to crypto losses of roughly $6.4 million.

According to web3 security firm CertiK, these losses were due to crypto hacks and phishing attacks through Discord and X (formerly known as Twitter). Social media has been recently flooded with fake airdrop messages from scammers. 

Several users have tweeted that popular Discord channels and bots have been hacked recently to spam members with token airdrop texts. In reality, these texts include phishing links, taking users to a malicious domain and draining their wallets in seconds. The airdrop scams have become significantly popular, and some threat actors are even using deepfakes or AI-generated videos to make these scams more convincing. 

Last week, TikTok was flooded with fake ‘Elon Musk’ Bitcoin scams. The scammers included a deepfake video of Musk doing an interview with Fox News, with the Tesla chief allegedly claiming to give away Bitcoin. However, like most other airdrop and giveaway scams, these were also redirecting users to phishing sites. 

Certik also reported that phishing campaigns have become much more rampant and frequent this year. Their data shows that monthly losses from phishing attacks have reached 136.8 million by August, which is already double the figure of 2022. 

A large number of these phishing campaigns are targeted at crypto holders and traders, driving the urgency for users to be more cautious with their digital assets.