Scammers adapt better than we can imagine and change depending on the market situation. This revelation was made at a recent webinar hosted by prominent blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, in which it measured crime trends in the industry’s market during the crypto winter. Data collected by the company revealed how scammers adapted to developments and volatility in the crypto market.
Not all scams behaved the same way in the context of the bear market. This time, it was the free gifts and romance scams that managed to steal money from the pockets of the victims.
Scammers Post Terra Collapse
He data collected by Chainalysis demonstrated ways in which scammers adapted to developments and volatility in the crypto market. According to the firm’s cybercrime investigation leader, Eric Jardine, the catastrophic collapse of Terra in May of last year forced these fraudulent entities to change their strategies.
The fall of the algorithmic stablecoin and the subsequent contagion spooked investors who were mostly reluctant to invest in projects.
As a result, investment scams were not as successful as they used to be when the market was rallying. “Playing the same script over and over again” made no sense, and it was during this time that scammers resorted to luring victims by targeting their greed with free giveaway scams. Romance scams were another ploy to steal money.
The executive stated,
“It is suggestive here that there is an adaptation on the part of the scammers and the market conditions make investment scams unprofitable; they may be substituting their tactics for other scams that play on a different emotional sense.”
Crypto Scam: 2021 to 2022
Overall revenue from digital asset scams fell nearly in half from nearly $11 billion in 2021 to $5.9 billion in 2022. Revenue from ransomware attacks also declined by 40.3% to al minus $456.8 million in 2022 from $765.6 million in 2021. This trend was indicative of a growing unwillingness among victims to pay ransomware attackers rather than a decrease in the actual number of exploits.
However, there is another type of scam that has risen to prominence, multi-level marketing scams, which accounted for the majority of funds stolen last year. Additionally, almost $1.3 billion of the crypto scam revenue was obtained through the hyperverse scam.
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