These types of attacks from OTP bots are increasing in frequency and are causing substantial losses to both institutions and individual retail investors. The bots have an extremely high success rate in extracting funds.
Scams in the world of cryptocurrency are a pretty common thing for sure. There are so many different types of scams that take place in this particular world of crypto. From romance scams to phising scams, people are swindled out of their cryptocurrency a lot.
It is important to ensure that you are safeguarding your cryptocurrency properly. A new scam has been added to the list of cryptocurrency scams for sure. According to the best site to get crypto news, scammers have found a new and interesting method of hacking into the accounts of people and stealing all their crypto.
There are some pretty advanced hacking bots that are used by the people in order to trick the investors into providing their authentication codes and hence the accounts are locked as well as wiped out due to that. There is no doubt that these OTP-related crimes have been increasing a lot since the cybercriminals are actually purchasing the bots on Telegram in order to trick the users.
A cybersecurity firm Intel471 provided a report and in the report, it was mentioned that One Time Password (OTP) bots are “remarkably easy to use” and are comparatively low-cost to function compared to the amount that can be received from an effective attack.
A Telegram bot known as ‘BloodOTPbot’ takes a monthly fee of just $300 to hackers to access. The scammers have also got the option to make sure that they are able to receive other tools of phising if they want to attack some individual accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
They can also choose other financial services platforms such as Venmo and Paypal along with cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase.
OTP bots are definitely a pretty nefarious way of gathering cryptocurrency from unsuspecting investors as they are generally the final step in the hacking process after all necessary personal information has been properly obtained on the victim, known in hacker parlance as “the fullz”.
Hackers use the OTP bot to stage a seemingly-official phone call, while simultaneously promoting the 2FA code from the user’s crypto platform. Once the typically flustered user divulges the code, hackers gain immediate and total access to the victim’s account.
According to a report from CNBC, Maryland-based obstetrician Dr. Anders Agpar, was the victim of such an attack, in which an “official-sounding phone call” alongside a series of banner notifications on his phone, informed him that his Coinbase account “was in jeopardy”
Dr. Agpar ended up in a situation where his two-factor-authentication (2FA) code was divulged over the phone and immediately afterward he found himself locked out of his own Coinbase account which held approximately $106,000 in Bitcoin (BTC).
These types of attacks from OTP bots are increasing in frequency and are causing substantial losses to both institutions and individual retail investors. The bots have an extremely high success rate in extracting funds.
Customer service at Coinbase has been the subject of criticism in the past after angry users slammed the platform for a lack of responsiveness in dealing with hackers.
In an attempt to improve response times and client relations, Coinbase acquired an Indian AI startup and created a phone line specifically for dealing with account takeovers and related attacks.
A Coinbase spokesperson mentioned in an interview with CNBC, “Coinbase will never make unsolicited calls to its customers, and we encourage everyone to be cautious when providing information over the phone.
If you receive a call from someone claiming to be from a financial institution, do not disclose any of your account details or security codes. Instead, hang up and call them back at an official phone number listed on the organization’s website.”
