• Chainalysis hosted a webinar to gauge crime trends in the crypto market during crypto winter.
• Data revealed that free giveaway and romantic scams managed to swipe money from victims‘ pockets during this period.
• The fall of Terra caused scammers to switch their strategies and target investor’s greed with free giveaways and romantic scams.

Crypto Winter Impacts Scammers

Chainalysis recently hosted a webinar to gauge crime trends in the crypto industry during crypto winter. Data gathered by the firm revealed how scammers adapted to the developments and volatility of the market, with free giveaway and romantic scams managing to swipe money from victims‘ pockets.

The Fall of Terra

The catastrophic collapse of algorithmic stablecoin Terra in May last year forced scammers to switch their tactics as investment scams were not seeing success as they used to be when the market was rallying. As a result, scammers resorted to luring victims by targeting their greed with free giveaway scams, as well as romantic scams.

Scams Adapting To Crypto Winter

Not all scams behaved the same way in context of the bear market, with Chainalysis demonstrating ways in which scammers adapted to the developments and volatility of the market. Eric Jardine, cybercrimes research lead for Chainalysis stated that “playing the same script over and over” did not make sense, leading scammers away from investment-related schemes towards those preying on people’s greed or emotions such as free giveaways or romantic cons.

Rise In Phishing Attacks During Crypto Winter

Phishing attacks also saw an increase during this time, with scam emails providing links designed to look like legitimate cryptocurrency exchanges but actually leading users into malicious websites meant for stealing account details or downloading malware onto user computers. Additionally, hackers have been known to target cloud services associated with digital wallets such as Google Drive or Dropbox, causing further damage if users do not take proper security precautions when storing wallet information online.

Conclusion

Overall, it is clear that criminals are adept at changing tactics depending on changes in markets or technology so it is important for investors and users alike remain vigilant when using cryptocurrencies and blockchain related services online. Taking steps such as using two-factor authentication can go a long way towards preventing these types of frauds from occurring in the first place.