Unknown scammers have organized a fake bitcoin giveaway through a
Russian government website they hacked. The news of the attack comes
after a recent report revealed that damages from crypto-related fraud in
Russia have reached $30 million in value in the first half of this
year.
Regional Government Website in Russia Hacked by Scammers
The main website of the local administration in the Russian city of
Ryazan, around 200 km southeast of Moscow, has been targeted by hackers
twice in a single day, Rzn.info reported
quoted by the crypto news outlet Forklog. The unidentified attackers
published an ad offering cryptocurrency to those who download a special
application.
The scammers initially promised to send 0.025 ВТС to every visitor
who installed the app. They later changed the offer to a prize of $1,000
in bitcoin for each of five randomly chosen participants in what was
advertised as the “Ryazani online lottery.” Both ads have already
disappeared from the mayoral site but the local news outlet published a
screenshot of one of the ads.
Crypto Fraud in Russia Valued at $30 Million This Year
The volume of cryptocurrency-related fraud around the world has
increased significantly in 2021. In the first half of the year, losses
amounted to an estimated $1.5 billion, which is two to three times more
than the total registered during the same period of last year, experts
from the IT security company Zecurion told the Russian daily Izvestia.
According to the report published earlier this week, the Russian
Federation accounts for 2% of the global amount – some $30 million, or
almost 2.2 billion rubles. Analysts believe the main reasons for the
spike stem from the growing exposure of users to digital assets as well
as the desire to make quick profits in an expanding sector with limited
regulations, amid volatility in the traditional financial markets. They
also expect crypto fraud to continue to rise this year leading up to a
15% annual increase.
In July, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) announced
it had identified 146 financial pyramid schemes in the first six months
of the year. The number is 1.5 times higher in comparison with the same
period of 2020. Fraudsters often lure people with weak financial
literacy into investment scams linked to cryptocurrencies or crypto
mining, the regulator said. The CBR attributed the surge to the
increasing activity of “unfair market participants” and investment
demand in Russia.
Blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis revealed
this week that crypto addresses based in Eastern Europe have sent $815
million of digital currency to scams in a single year. Over half of the
money transferred to scam addresses from the region went to the
Russia-based Ponzi scheme Finiko. The pyramid was targeting crypto
holders in Russian-speaking populations in the former Soviet space with
promises of 30% monthly returns before it collapsed in July.
source link : https://news.bitcoin.com/scammers-offer-free-bitcoin-on-hacked-government-site-in-russia-as-crypto-fraud-surges/
