Crypto scammers took advantage of the situation around Ukraine. How to protect yourself

The aggravation of the geopolitical situation around Ukraine was taken advantage of by cryptocurrency scammers who began to use the negative information background for illegal enrichment. We have collected three of the most dangerous schemes used by attackers.

In the first days after the start of the special operation on the territory of Ukraine, cybersecurity specialists from Avast discovered on social networks a surge in spam activity from scammers who pretended to be affected Ukrainian citizens and asked to send them cryptocurrency. Avast noted that similar activity was observed in the early months of the pandemic, when many travelers were unable to return home due to the cancellation of flights and the introduction of restrictive measures.

The company’s specialists recommended not sending cryptocurrency to unknown individuals, since there are absolutely no guarantees that this is a real person in need of help. Similar activity of spam mailings from scammers was also recorded by ESET.

According to the CNBC TV channel, some attackers began to impersonate representatives of public and humanitarian organizations to deceive users. Journalists noted that often in such cases, fraudsters use various methods of emotional pressure.

At the end of February, cryptocurrency holders began receiving newly created Ukraine and Peace tokens on their wallets. When trying to sell these tokens, an error is displayed. This may be due to the fact that the sell function is disabled, or it is allowed only for certain addresses - the issuer itself.

Attackers can distribute and promote such tokens so that crypto investors start buying them on decentralized trading platforms. In such cases, crypto investors themselves transfer money to attackers when buying tokens, but they cannot return them back, since tokens cannot be sold.

Another danger that such cryptocurrencies can pose is the loss of control over the wallet. When trying to get rid of the token by any means, a crypto investor may receive a request from attackers to access a cryptocurrency wallet. Such a request may contain permission to access all assets stored at the address. In this case, the attackers will have full control over the cryptocurrency.

After the tightening of anti-Russian sanctions by Western countries, a warning appeared on the official website of the MetaMask crypto wallet that the service may not work in certain jurisdictions due to compliance with the law. After that, some users started reporting problems accessing MetaMask.

In early March, users began to receive massive emails allegedly from the developers of the MetaMask crypto wallet with a requirement to pass verification, otherwise their account would be blocked. The mailing is done by attackers in order to take over the user's account. It must be remembered that when registering in MetaMask, you do not need to enter an email address, so the wallet developers do not have the opportunity to send their users mailing lists. Later, a warning about fraudulent emails appeared on the official MetaMask Twitter page.

Against the background of the aggravation of the geopolitical situation, various cryptocurrency exchanges and services have introduced various restrictions on Russian citizens. Crypto exchange Binance has restricted access to the platform to Russians included in the US and EU sanctions lists. Also, cardholders of Russian banks that fell under sanctions cannot use these cards on the platform. With regard to Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian users, various restrictions were introduced by the CEX IO, KUNA, BTC-Alpha and Qmall cryptocurrency exchanges.

Blocking accounts of Russians: which crypto exchanges have already introduced restrictions

Crypto exchanges Coinbase and EXMO have announced that they do not plan to carry out mass blocking of users from Russia. The head of the Kraken crypto exchange, Jesse Powell, said that the platform does not yet plan to block users from Russia, but it can do this if such a requirement comes from the US authorities or other countries.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a special operation in Ukraine. The aggravation of the geopolitical situation has led many countries to impose new sanctions against Russia. A number of Russian banks fell under the sanctions, including the largest ones - Sberbank and VTB. The US Department of Commerce has tightened the rules for obtaining export permits to Russia for microelectronics, avionics and aircraft parts using American technologies.

Crypto farms associated with Nazarbayev’s brother closed in Kazakhstan

- No blocking. What are decentralized social networks

— The RandomDao token has risen in price by 50 times in 4 days. Created by a child

— What will happen to bitcoin in the next month. Three Predictions

- 99% of the trading volume of bitcoins is accounted for by transfers of more than $100,000.

You can find more news about cryptocurrencies in our RBC-Crypto telegram channel.