The famous
scam service Monkey Drainer has been suddenly shut down. The service has
reported that it is shutting down
its phishing smart contract ‘scam as a service’ offerings. The service has been
popular among cybercriminals, taking a 30% cut for its services. It offered a
fake NFT airdrop that was promoted through hacked Twitter accounts of real
projects or via its copies.
Once users
clicked the link to receive an airdrop, they were instructed to authorise their
MetaMask as this is the procedure on Web3 websites. However, behind this
authorisation was a drain smart-contract that looked for tokens on user wallet.
The users were then asked if they wanted to make transactions to receive the
NFT, while the real transaction moved these tokens to hacker wallets. Monkey
Drainer was dominating this fraudulent segment. The decision to shut it down may
have resulted from the increased forensic scrutiny the market has experienced
recently, as authorities and cyber security firms pay more attention to crypto
services.
The shutdown does not
mean that cybercriminals will disappear, or even lower their activity. There
are lots of Monkey Drainer copies on the internet, along with other criminal
offers to steal crypto assets. One of the popular fishing schemes is to offer
users the chance to send 10 USDC to test
the service and in return they receives three scam transactions while
inadvertently using one of the links to transfer most of the funds. Crypto
users have gotten used to shortcut wallet addresses having a certain pattern while crypto criminals use this to fake real
addresses with their own scam wallet.
Meanwhile, ‘Shanghai’
update for Ethereum network is nearing. The update will allow users who staked
their ETH on the deposit to withdraw it. The deposit was launched in 2020
without any information on when the deposited fund could be received back.
Nonetheless, the amount of staking was growing stably even during market
turbulence.
Investors are unlikely
to sell staked ETH immediately as there are trading 70% off their peak prices.
Many believe the correction is almost over, while others are looking to buy ETH
at a significant discount. Moreover, many crypto enthusiasts are looking for
staking opportunities. The overall staking balance is likely to be positive,
manifesting the strength of the Ethereum.