Phishing Attempts Are at an All Time High

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have been reporting a new campaign of phishing attacks, targeted at Coinbase users, and more recently, at Mt.Gox scam victims. The scheme is being carried out through malicious emails containing links to a fake website, as well as file attachments. 

Users of the popular BitcoinTalk forum, along with Bitcoin subreddit members, have reported two new phishing campaign, the first one features a fake email from Coinbase announcing the opening of a new ‘Trading Platform’. The message encourages users to try the new service by going what appears to be a legitimate link, but when hovering over it, the real destination is revealed: a fake, cloned website. The scam seeks to steal User/Password combinations from the users.

Additionally, another scam attempt was made yesterday, when users received an email encouraging them to open a file document hosted on google drive (containing malware). Supposedly the file contains a list of all accepted/rejected MtGox claims. Reddit user jespow posted a detailed log of all the information that could be collected from the email.

For those unfamiliar with the case, MtGox was the main Bitcoin exchange, according to Wikipedia  by 2013 it was handling 70% of all transactions, Kraken offered to help in the collection of customer’s claims, to be filed out by the appointed trustee. Since the debacle, about 200,000 bitcoins were recovered, and will be distributed among the affected users.

The increase in malware infection attempts is alarming, as always, readers are encouraged to exert caution when opening email’s attachments and links, always double-check the real destination of a link by hovering over it with your mouse, and when in doubt, refrain from even clicking it.

Apple users can now download the app of The Merkle in the App Store!

If you liked this article follow us on twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin and altcoin price analysis and the latest cryptocurrency news.