Miscreants devised an exploit for YouTube to deploy crypto scams

A recent study showed a new crypto scam campaign that uses fake YouTube videos to let the attackers lure their victims. These phoney YouTube videos endorse fraudulent web-based applications for USDT that deceives users into joining sketchy crypto investment scams.

Based on reports, the massive cryptocurrency scam operation was executed by more than 30 threat actors. Some reports stated that these actors have already collected a hundred thousand dollars in revenue from nearly a thousand victims.

The threat actors’ fake YouTube channels distributed more than 700 different URLs to infect unknowing users. Moreover, the threat actors could still control these numerous URLs through a small command headquarters on Telegram.

 

The scammers also improved their crypto scams by putting normal user activities within their fake YouTube videos.

 

According to investigations, the threat actors adopted a strategy that allowed them to execute the automated copy-pasting comments to their fake videos to make their channels look legitimate and improve their crypto scams.

In addition, the actors employed attached SEO-improving tactics in their videos’ description fields to boost their rankings. The fake applications also included bonus VIP structures that endorse higher return options in exchange for investment commitments to lure potential targets.

Most of the suspicious videos also urged their targets to invite family and friends to participate. This strategy allowed the threat actors to collect a small amount to a high volume of people.

The malicious threat groups are constantly putting more features to their attacks to upgrade their TTPs and harvest more crypto assets. In one such crypt scamming incident, the threat actors adopted crypto drainer phishing pages to deceive investors into giving away funds in their wallets.

In a similar incident, the scammers utilised an address-poisoning strategy to collect crypto funds from MetaMask users.

Cybersecurity experts believe these crypto scams will be a considerable threat to cryptocurrency users for a long time. The continuous rise of new crypto scam operations from different threat actors could threaten the cryptocurrency landscape more.

Users should be cautious in accessing links from untrusted sources or unwanted communications to avoid getting tricked by such scams.