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Social engineering and fake support

15 incidents, 3 live. 11 days since the last new one.

11 drains in the last 12 months

11 drains in the last 12 months

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Critical 4 · High 3 · Med 2 · Low 1 · Update ½ Less More

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  • Medium✓Contained

    COLDCARD's X account posts fake 'security migration' phishing link

    On 11 October 2026 the official X account of hardware wallet maker COLDCARD published an unauthorized post claiming a flaw in recovery phrase generation in newer firmware and urging users to move their Bitcoin through a 'security migration' site that impersonated COLDCARD. The company deleted the post, said it was investigating how it was published, and said it found no matching login or session record despite offline 2FA. No losses were confirmed. The only official site is coldcard.com; never enter a seed phrase on any website.

    COLDCARD hardware wallet users on X·Bitcoin·Since Oct 11, 2026·

  • Critical✕Still activeAI · AI lure

    Joint advisory: North Korea's WaterPlum fake-job campaign infected 30,000 devices, hit 7,000+ wallets

    On 18 September 2026 Japanese, US, Australian and German authorities warned that the North Korean group WaterPlum, linked to the 'Contagious Interview' campaign, infected at least 30,000 devices in more than 100 countries between December 2025 and July 2026. Posing as AI, crypto or NFT firms and recruiters, they get targets to run code during fake interviews and coding tests, including malicious npm packages and VS Code projects, then steal private keys, seed phrases and passwords. Funds or credentials were taken from over 7,000 wallets, and more than 1.7 billion yen (about $10.71M) went to North Korea. The advisory does not say the campaign has stopped.

    Crypto, AI and NFT developers and job seekers·Multiple EVM chains·$11M stolen·Since Sep 18, 2026·

  • Critical✓ContainedAI · AI attack

    Drift Protocol drained of $270M+ after signers pre-signed durable-nonce admin transactions

    On Apr 1, 2026, an attacker took admin control of the Solana perps exchange Drift and drained its vaults of at least $270 million; SlowMist lists $285 million. Weeks earlier, Security Council signers had been led into 'unauthorized or misrepresented' approvals. Because those transactions used durable nonces, they stayed valid until the attacker chose to submit them. The funds were bridged to Ethereum, including more than $230 million in USDC via Circle's CCTP. No code bug was needed. The lesson for teams is that any durable-nonce signing request is high risk.

    Drift Protocol (Security Council multisig)·Solana·$285M stolen·Since Apr 1, 2026·

Past

September 2026 1

  • Medium✓Contained

    Brevo login flaw lets attacker email a fake Trezor 'STM32 entropy' alert to 347,000 subscribers

    An attacker abused an authorization flaw in email platform Brevo to reach 138 client accounts and send phishing from six of them. One was a fake Trezor 'Critical Security Alert: STM32 Entropy Vulnerability' sent to about 347,000 Trezor newsletter subscribers, linking to an app that asked for wallet backups; BitBox's list and CoinTracking (a fake 'refresh API keys' email) were also used. Trezor took the phishing domain down within 20 minutes; about 2,500 people opened the link and no losses have been reported. Recipients should expect follow-up phishing to the same addresses.

    Trezor, BitBox and CoinTracking newsletter subscribers·Bitcoin, Multiple EVM chains·Since Sep 9, 2026·

April 2026 1

  • Critical✓Contained

    CoW Swap domain hijacked via registrar social engineering; cloned site drains users through approvals

    On 14 April 2026 attackers took control of the domain for swap.cow.fi and sent visitors to a cloned CoW Swap interface that asked for malicious token approvals. CoW DAO paused its backend and APIs and told users to revoke approvals made after 14:54 UTC; the protocol's smart contracts were not affected. Early estimates were about $500K drained; Halborn later put user losses at about $1.2M and said the registrar had been social-engineered.

    CoW Swap (swap.cow.fi) users·Ethereum·$1.2M stolen·Since Apr 14, 2026·

February 2026 3

  • High✓ContainedAI · Agent target

    AI trading agent Lobstar Wilde sends about $250K in tokens to an X user who asked it for 4 SOL

    On 22 February 2026 Lobstar Wilde, an experimental AI trading agent with its own Solana wallet built by an OpenAI developer, answered an X reply asking for 4 SOL for a relative's medical treatment. Instead of a small amount it sent about 53 million LOBSTAR tokens, roughly 5% of supply and about $250,000 at the time, and the recipient sold them. The bot called it an accident; a decimal error was suggested by an X user but not confirmed by the creator. Agents that can send funds in response to public replies need hard per-transfer caps and human approval.

    Lobstar Wilde, an experimental AI trading agent on X·Solana·$250K stolen·Since Feb 22, 2026·

  • Critical◐Partly contained

    IoTeX ioTube bridge drained of about $4.4M after attacker abused a compromised employee machine

    On 21 February 2026 an attacker who had compromised an IoTeX employee's machine, reportedly through social engineering, upgraded the ioTube bridge's Ethereum-side Validator contract to a malicious version. That let them drain about $4.4M in bridge reserves (WBTC, ETH, USDC, USDT, DAI and others) and mint 410M CIOTX. IoTeX froze about 45M IOTX in attacker wallets, paused its chain for three days and opened a claims portal for affected users.

    IoTeX ioTube bridge (Ethereum side)·Ethereum·$4.4M stolen·Since Feb 21, 2026·

  • Medium✕Still activeAI · AI lure

    North Korea's UNC1069 used an apparent deepfake CEO on a fake Zoom call to infect a crypto fintech

    Mandiant reported on 9 February 2026 an intrusion at a crypto-sector fintech that began with a message from a crypto executive's hijacked Telegram account and a Calendly invite to a spoofed Zoom meeting. On the call the victim saw what appeared to be a deepfake of another crypto company's CEO, was told their audio was broken and was talked into running 'troubleshooting' commands (ClickFix). Those commands installed seven malware families on macOS that collect credentials, browser and Telegram data to enable crypto theft. Mandiant tied it to the North Korea-linked group UNC1069 and reported no stolen amount.

    Crypto and DeFi fintech staff on macOS·Multiple EVM chains·Since Feb 9, 2026·

January 2026 2

  • Medium✕Still activeAI · AI malware

    North Korea-linked KONNI targets blockchain developers with an AI-generated PowerShell backdoor

    Check Point Research reported on 22 January 2026 that the North Korea-linked group KONNI, long focused on South Korean government targets, is now going after developers and engineering teams on blockchain and crypto projects. Phishing lures dressed up as project documentation deliver a PowerShell backdoor that Check Point calls AI-generated, with activity seen in Japan, Australia and India. A compromised developer can expose source code, infrastructure and blockchain credentials. No losses were reported.

    Blockchain and crypto developers and engineering teams (Asia-Pacific)·Multiple EVM chains·Since Jan 22, 2026·

  • Critical✓Contained

    Meteora loses $1.5M USDC to fake OTC escrow in double-impersonation scam

    On Jan 17, 2026, the Solana DEX Meteora sent $1.5 million in USDC to what it believed was a trusted escrow wallet for an OTC buyback of its MET token. Scammers had impersonated the seller to Meteora and Meteora to the seller, so the 'escrow' address was theirs. The funds were reportedly moved through KuCoin. No smart contract was exploited and no user funds were involved. Meteora disclosed the loss in its Q1 2026 token holder report. Teams doing OTC deals should confirm counterparties and escrow addresses over a separate, known channel.

    Meteora treasury (OTC buyback of MET)·Solana·$1.5M stolen·Since Jan 17, 2026·

October 2025 1

  • Medium✕Still activeAI · AI malware

    Kaspersky: North Korea's BlueNoroff uses generative AI to speed up malware in GhostCall and GhostHire crypto attacks

    Kaspersky disclosed on 28 October 2025 two BlueNoroff campaigns aimed at Web3 and crypto organisations in India, Turkey, Australia and other countries in Europe and Asia, active since at least April 2025. GhostCall reaches executives and founders on Telegram with fake investor meetings, where an 'audio fix' installs malware; GhostHire sends blockchain developers fake job tests in GitHub repositories that hide malware. Kaspersky says generative AI has helped the group develop malware faster, and the payloads include crypto stealers. No loss figures were given.

    Web3 and crypto executives, founders and blockchain developers·Multiple EVM chains·Since Oct 28, 2025·

September 2025 1

  • Critical✕Still activeAI · AI lure

    THORChain co-founder loses about $1.35M after a fake Zoom call showing a deepfake of a friend

    In early September 2025 THORChain co-founder John-Paul Thorbjornsen got a Zoom link from a friend's hacked Telegram account, joined in his browser and, by his account, saw a deepfake of his friend with no sound before leaving. An old MetaMask wallet of his was later drained of about $1.35M in Kyber Network and THORSwap tokens (PeckShield valued it at about $1.2M); he believes the key was reached through iCloud Keychain or a zero-day. ZachXBT attributed the theft to North Korean hackers, and THORChain said the protocol itself was not affected.

    THORChain co-founder's personal wallet·Ethereum·$1.4M stolen·Since Sep 4, 2025·

August 2025 1

  • High✕Still activeAI · AI lure

    YouTube 'MEV bot' tutorials, some AI-generated, tricked users into deploying drainer contracts; $900K+ taken

    SentinelLABS reported in August 2025 that scammers use YouTube tutorials to get people to deploy a 'free' Ethereum arbitrage bot contract through Remix, fund it with ETH and press Start. Hidden code sends the ETH to an attacker wallet, and the top attacker address alone received 244.9 ETH (about $902,000). The videos ran on aged channels with manipulated comments, and SentinelLABS says several appear to be AI-generated. Versions of the scam have run since at least early 2024 and were described as ongoing.

    Ethereum users following YouTube 'MEV bot' tutorials·Ethereum·$900K stolen·Since Aug 5, 2025·

June 2025 1

  • Medium✕Still activeAI · AI lure

    North Korea's BlueNoroff used deepfaked executives on a Zoom call to infect a crypto foundation employee's Mac

    Huntress reported on 18 June 2025 that an employee of a cryptocurrency foundation was contacted on Telegram, sent a Calendly invite and led to a fake Zoom domain. Weeks later the employee joined a group call that contained several deepfakes of the company's senior leadership; when 'audio problems' came up, they were told to install a Zoom extension that was really a malicious AppleScript. It installed a set of macOS backdoors, a keylogger and screen recorder, and a crypto-wallet stealer called CryptoBot. Huntress did not say whether funds were stolen.

    Crypto foundation staff on macOS·Multiple EVM chains·Since Jun 11, 2025·

May 2025 1

  • Medium✕Still activeAI · AI lure

    Deepfake Zoom calls of Polygon's co-founder push malware to startup founders from a hijacked Telegram account

    On 13 May 2025 Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal warned that attackers had taken over the Telegram account of the head of Polygon Ventures and were messaging startup founders in its network. Targets were invited to Zoom calls showing AI-generated video of Nailwal and other team members with no audio, and were urged to install an 'SDK' to fix the sound, which would infect their computers. No losses were reported. Do not install software during a call, even when the people on screen look like contacts you know.

    Startup founders in Polygon's investment network·Multiple EVM chains·Since May 13, 2025·

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