A few days ago, we reported on the malicious MyEtherWallet platforms which aim to defraud Ethereum users. As it turns out, there are various addresses which have been identified to receive this stolen funds. Unfortunately, some of these addresses contain substantial ETH and ETC balances, showing off the trickery is working.
MyEtherWallet Scam Sites Are Successful
A new post has surfaced on Reddit which displays several wallet addresses associated with malicious MyEtherWallet websites. Several of these account balances have been updated, ranging from 472 ETH to 525 ETH each. At the current Ether value, that represents a fair amount of money.
These links are being spread through purchased search engine advertisements. Even though companies such as Bing and Google are removing these ads after a certain number of reports, the damage has been done already. While the total amounts of money lost could have been much higher, they should have been prevented in the first place.
A total of three Ethereum and one Ethereum Classic addresses have been associated with these scam sites. With a total of 1,571 ETH and 1,893 ETC stolen from unsuspecting users so far, the campaign has proven to be quite lucrative. Running these paid ads on search engines is not cheap, albeit it is possible the attackers used stolen credit card information to do so.
Various malicious sites have received a takedown request, although new ones seem to pop up now and then. At first, it appeared the assailants were only targeting Ethereum users, but several malicious ETC wallet sites have popped up as well. Luckily, three fake sites have been taking down already, and the others will hopefully follow suit.
Users need to be careful when using online wallet services at all times. Even legitimate platforms pose a security risk, as the user is never in full control of their funds. Moving cryptocurrency balances to a wallet hosted on a computer or mobile device is a better course of action, as it should reduce the risk of having funds stolen.
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