Beware of Web 3.0 phishing scams! A summary of the methods and damage this year | KEKKAI CEO To Ma

The CEO of a Japanese Web 3.0 security company discusses emerging security issues

What is a phishing scam?

The cryptocurrency market has been particularly booming since the beginning of 2024. As a result, many Web 3.0 projects are taking advantage of this market and launching various airdrops and other measures.

It is precisely because of this timing of increased on-chain activity that one must be careful of "phishing scams".

Users dealing with DeFi, airdrops, and NFTs are particularly prone to falling victim to this scam. In many cases, almost all of the assets in the wallet will be stolen if they are victimized, so caution is required.

Also, as with traditional phishing scams, it is difficult for victims to notice that they have been victimized, and they often do not know immediately when the theft occurred.

Explanation of the method

As with traditional phishing scams, scammers impersonate famous projects and influencers to approach users.

There are various methods, but they tend to be DMs on social media and web advertisements on search engines and social media.

In addition, they may post in the reply section of an official account on social media such as X through a fake account, or hack and take over the project or influencer's own account.

In particular, the latter scams are less likely to be noticed by users as scams, and the damage is likely to spread.

Then, they lure users to fake sites with slogans such as "airdropping crypto assets" and "free distribution of NFTs."

The UI of such fake sites is made to look exactly like the real thing, so it is difficult to determine whether it is a scam based on only a limited number of elements.

When a user tries to mint an NFT or claim a token on the fake site, they enter a seed phrase or execute a transaction on the backend to transfer assets to the scammer. This is the main method used by scammers to extract users' assets.

The point is not that the device is hacked, but that the user himself is unknowingly making a transaction to transfer crypto assets to the scammer.

Victim status

Since the beginning of 2024, the damage has been clearly on the rise. Approximately 40,000 people were phishing victims in January, approximately 57,000 people in February, and approximately 77,000 people in March, and the amount of damage is increasing roughly proportionally.

Looking at the data from 2021 to 2023, we can see a trend of damage increasing as the market capitalization of crypto assets increases, so we are concerned that damage will increase further in the full-scale bull market expected from this year to next year.

Countermeasures

As a countermeasure, it is most important to recognize that such scams exist and to be skeptical of convenient stories on a daily basis.

However, recently, the methods of scammers have become more diverse, and they often target assets without such awareness. As a countermeasure, we would like you to consider using the risk detection tools in our security service "KEKKAI" to protect yourself from scams in the Web 3.0 area as much as possible. (Supervisor: To Ma) (Text: Toda Yudai)

https://kekkai.io

Profile

◉To Ma

CEO of KEKKAI Co., Ltd.

After graduating from high school, he came to Japan from China and started his own company while in college. KEKKAI Co., Ltd. was established in January 2023. It will provide blockchain security solutions. Currently, it has released the Web 3.0 security product "KEKKAI Plugin" that can detect risks through transaction simulation analysis, an API/SDK service that can detect NFT fraud and simulate transactions, and a Web 3 code audit business for corporations. In the future, it will release products to improve current services and improve user security from various angles, contributing to improving the environment of the entire industry.

◉ Yuta Toda

KEKKA Co., Ltd. CMO

While attending university, he founded KEKKAI Co., Ltd. in January 2023 and participated as a member. As CMO, he is in charge of product marketing and promotion. Currently, it provides security tools "KEKKAI Plugin" and "KEKKAI Mobile" for users that detect risks through real-time analysis of transactions and smart contracts, and is also developing the transaction analysis API "KEKKAI API/SDK" and code audit business "KEKKAI Audit" for businesses.

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