- Nearly 4,000 people fell victim to sophisticated phishing websites.
- Solana was considered the most vulnerable when it came to phishing incidents.
Malicious players stole crypto assets worth over $4 million from Solana [SOL] wallets in the past month, according to a survey by anti-scam platform Web3 Scam sniffer.
Nearly 4,000 people fell victim to sophisticated phishing websites that preyed on Solana users.
As part of the investigation, Scam Sniffer tracked down two main perpetrators throughout the episode: Rainbow Drainer and Node Drainer.
Solana users attacked
The first incident came to light when a victim was tricked into opening a phishing website linked to a fake airdrop of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The user opened the website and signed a malicious transaction, causing asset loss.
Many more users were targeted with the same modus operandi of Rainbow Drainer.
Surprisingly, before completing the transaction, users received a notification stating that the simulation had failed. Despite this, they continued and ended up losing money.
Source: Scam Sniffer
Particularly round $2.14 million were sucked dry, including some popular Solana ecosystem tokens like BONK and ZERO.
Over Christmas, the next phishing incident targeting BONK holders emerged, resulting in the extraction of over $2 million in less than two weeks.
One address associated with Node drainer has already made over $1 million in profits at the time of writing.
The perpetrator here, named Node Drainer, was also involved in the recent hacking of a cybersecurity company Mandiants X account (formerly Twitter), revealed Scam Sniffer.
Scam Sniffer stated that phishing incidents on Solana involve instant transfers, unlike Ethereum [ETH].
Although Solana supports transaction simulation, developed hacking strategies such as anti-simulation and even fake simulation continue to mislead users.
How much are 1,10,100 SOLs worth today?
Increase in phishing incidents
In one of the earlier reports, Scam Sniffer highlighted the alarming increase in the number of phishing websites every month. This was also in line with the steady growth of wallet tapping services.
Source: Scam Sniffer
Be wary of false air droplets
In one of the previously discussed incidents, airdrops were used as a weapon to wipe out money. Such cases require extra caution from the users, and it is always advisable to do research before taking the offer.
You should take the time to learn about the project and other investors participating in it. Needless to say, you’ll need to stick to official sources and notice red flags, like sending crypto, before you can claim airdropped tokens.