Crypto catfishers ditch fake exchanges for approval phishing scams
According to on-chain analytics firm Chainalysis, romance scammers increasingly use this method to steal their victim’s hard-earned crypto.
Crypto romance scammers — a cohort of crypto-stealing smooth-talkers — appear to have a new trick up their sleeves: targeted approval phishing.
In a Dec. 14 report from on-chain analytics firm Chainalysis, the firm noted that the technique has seen explosive growth over the past two years, with at least $374 million in suspected stolen crypto in 2023.
Approval phishing is a crypto scam where victims are tricked into signing transactions that give scammers access to wallets, allowing them to drain funds. While this isn’t new, Chainalysis said the technique is now utilized more often by pig-butchering scammers.
