Scammers Drain $2.5 Million in Crypto Exit Scam: CertiK Report

Less than two weeks into the new year, malicious entities have already started doing what they do best.

according to the latest to update by blockchain security company CertiK, the creators have removed two recently created contracts, CirculateBUSD and CirculateWBNB.

• The funds were connected to Ethereum and deposited into OFAC-sanctioned coin mixer Tornado Cash.
• In doing so, the creators of the two contracts managed to pull off what appears to be an exit scam by spending $2.5 million. CertiK explained,

“This incident is made possible by a back door in the ‘Start Trading’ feature. The function calls a malicious unverified contract SwapHelper (0x112f8) with the signature 0x6343756. The CirculateBUSD implementer is configured in the SwapHelper that receives the funds.”

• In a recent report, CertiK noted the observation of a large number of incidents last year despite the crypto bear market and added that there will be no respite in exploits, quick loans or exit scams this year either.
• In fact, the volume of illicit crypto asset transactions reached a record level of $20 billion, according to Chainalysis’ Crypto Crime Report.
• The firm also found that transactions involving sanctioned entities increased more than 100,000 times in 2022, representing 44% of the illicit activity from the previous year.
• Chainalysis recently pointed out that taking a decentralized protocol like Tornado Cash offline isn’t very easy, which explains why the coin mixer’s activity hasn’t completely halted post-OFAC sanctions.