PANews reported on December 11 that according to Cointelegraph, blockchain security company Scam Sniffer warned that scammers are combining social engineering with fake Telegram verification robots to inject cryptocurrency-stealing malware into the system to attack crypto wallets. Scammers create fake X accounts, impersonate popular cryptocurrency influencers, and then invite users to join Telegram groups, promising to provide investment insights. Once in the Telegram group, users are asked to verify through "Official Safeguard Bot", a fake verification robot that "creates an artificial sense of urgency" through a short verification window. The robot then injects malicious PowerShell code that downloads and runs malware to damage computer systems and crypto wallets. Scam Sniffer noted that it has noticed "multiple" cases of private keys being stolen due to similar malware; recently known cases of such fraud were caused by this fake verification robot.
According to Scam Sniffer, malware targeting regular users has “been around for a long time,” but the infrastructure behind this malware is “evolving rapidly” and becoming “quite sophisticated.” It explains that when scammers are successful with their attacks and demand increases, they evolve into a scam-as-a-service model, similar to how crypto wallet drain software makers rent out their tools to phishing scammers.
