In February 2024, Scam Sniffer, a web3 anti-scam solution company, reported a substantial loss of $46.86 million in cryptocurrencies due to scams.
According to their findings, over 57,000 individuals fell victim to various phishing scams during this period. The report noted a significant decrease of 75% in the number of victims losing over $1 million compared to January.
Among the thefts, the Ethereum mainnet accounted for over $36.2 million, representing 78% of the total exploits in February. Ethereum blockchain users comprised the majority of victims, with 25,029 individuals affected.
It’s worth mentioning that while there was a decrease in the total number of victims losing over $1 million, more than $6.2 million in digital assets were lost on a single day, February 15.
Scam Sniffer emphasized that Ethereum-based ERC tokens bore the brunt of the thefts, accounting for $40 million of the stolen assets, representing 86% of the total.
The majority of ERC20 token thefts were attributed to assets being stolen through phishing signatures such as Permit, IncreaseAllowance, and Uniswap Permit2.
Another recent report from Immunefi highlighted Ethereum as the most targeted chain, with 12 incidents representing 85.71% of the total losses across targeted chains.
Major Crypto Scams in February
In February, the web3 gaming platform PlayDapp experienced a significant security breach, resulting in cumulative losses exceeding $290 million. The exploit, attributed to a private-key leak, led to the unauthorized issuance of PLA tokens.
Similarly, a notable loss in February occurred due to a crypto heist on the decentralized exchange FixedFloat. The hack resulted in the loss of 409 Bitcoin (valued at approximately $21.3 million) and 1700 ETH (worth around $4.9 million).
FixedFloat attributed the attack to “flaws” and “insufficient protection” in the exchange’s infrastructure, denying any internal involvement in the incident.
