Cryptocurrency attacks reached record levels last year, according to researchers with Chainalysis, who said that attacks soared in a number of areas over the 2024 calendar year.The annual fraud report found that cryptocurrency scams netted cyber criminals $9.9 billion last year. That figure would represent a significant decrease from the more than $12 billion stolen in 2023, though Chainalysis cautioned that figure will likely need to be revised in the coming months.“According to our metrics today, it looks like 2024 saw a drop in scam revenue; however, 2024 was likely a record year as these figures are lower-bound estimates based on inflows to the scam addresses we’ve identified up to today,” Chainalysis explained.“A year from now, these totals will be higher, as we identify more illicit addresses and incorporate their historic activity into our estimates.”Among the most popular methods of separating cryptocurrency from its rightful owner is a technique known as “pig butchering.”In this type of scam, the target is romanced by the scammer in order to earn trust. When the time is right, the scammer asks the victim for a sum of money and directs them to make the currency transfer to an account controlled by the scammer.According to Chainalysis, pig butchering is on the rise, accounting for roughly 33% of all scams. Additionally, the per-scam yield was up 36%, suggesting that the scammers are getting significantly better at winning over lonely hearts.“In the last few years, crypto fraud and scams have continued to increase in sophistication, as the fraud ecosystem becomes more professionalized,” the crypto analysts explained.“Operations like Huione Guarantee, a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace, offer a host of illicit services that support pig butchering scamming operations and serve as a one-stop-shop for scammers’ needs.”The most popular method for attack, however, remains the good old fashioned confidence scam. The report found that 58% of all scams could be classified as high-yield investment or trading scams.As the name would suggest, those scams rely on the promise of easy money by investing or trading into a worthless or non-existent cryptocurrency by transferring money into an account controlled by the scammer.Looking forward, Chainalysis sees scammers pivoting some of their tactics, most notably the way they extract funds from their fraud operations.“Scam operators are also likely wisening up to the traceability of cryptocurrency, and are now having victims reach out to ‘customer service’ representatives to obtain a crypto address,” Chainalysis said.“Some scammers are foregoing cryptocurrency as a payment option altogether and are instead directing scam victims to other payment services.”
