The SMS Phishing Nightmare: How Scammers Are Stealing Your Crypto!

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Binance, that glittering fortress of digital wealth, has sounded the alarm! The dark forces of SMS phishing have taken root, sending waves of fear through the cryptocurrency kingdom. Like modern-day highway robbers, these scams threaten to strip away your hard-earned digital treasure.

SMS phishing, or “smishing” as the cool kids call it, is a sinister method where malicious actors mask their true identities. They alter the sender’s number, making it look like a message from a trusted company—because why wouldn’t you trust a random number pretending to be your friend, right?

Binance’s Bold Promise: To Keep You Safe… Probably

In a valiant declaration on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), Binance reassured its users that it’s still trying to be the hero in this digital heist. They’ve promised to introduce new security features that will help users identify real Binance texts from the fake ones. Because, you know, checking if the message is real might just be the thing that saves you from a fortune’s worth of scam.

Binance also reminded users (for the umpteenth time) to double-check the source of any SMS they get and to avoid clicking on those deliciously tempting, yet deadly, links. Protect your passwords, private keys, and, most importantly, your dignity. Oh, and they also clarified—just in case you were wondering—that they don’t contact users via SMS or phone calls. So if your phone rings with a “Binance” number, it’s probably time to question your life choices.

“Binance is committed to protecting the security of user assets and combating illegal fraud. We plan to launch a new security feature in the near future to help users identify the authenticity of text messages, so stay tuned.”

The Scary Reality: Real People, Real Losses

The heroes at SlowMist, a cybersecurity team, have been monitoring these attacks closely. In their analysis, they revealed that scammers are getting really good at impersonating Binance’s official SMS service. It’s almost like they’ve taken the “Fake It ‘Til You Make It” motto too seriously, exploiting vulnerabilities to send realistic-looking messages that lure users into a trap.

Take the case of Joe Zhou, a Binance user who thought he was getting a legit warning about suspicious activity from North Korea (because, of course, that sounds completely normal). When he called the number provided, a British-accented voice calmly guided him to set up a SafePal wallet—falsely claiming it was a Binance partner. The scammer then asked Zhou to transfer his assets there for an “investigation.” Spoiler alert: Zhou was scammed. A small amount of $200 worth of tokens disappeared into the ether.

But wait! There’s more! ScamSniffer, a blockchain security firm, reported that 9,220 victims lost a total of $10.25 million to crypto phishing scams in January 2025. That’s less than the previous month’s $23.58 million—but let’s not celebrate too soon. The scammers are still out there, sharpening their knives… err, phishing hooks.

Coinbase users, take note! According to blockchain investigator ZachXBT, over $300 million is lost every year due to phishing attacks. So, it’s not just Binance that’s at risk. Everyone is a target. Thanks, scammers, for making us all question our own trust in the digital world!

1/ Over the past few months I imagine you have seen many Coinbase users complain on X about their accounts suddenly being restricted.

This is the result of aggressive risk models and Coinbase’s failure to stop its users losing $300M+ per year to social engineering scams.

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 3, 2025

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2025-02-26 21:08