Inferno Drainer, the new scam in vogue in the cryptocurrency world, is wreaking havoc among unsuspecting investors. Revealed by the Scam Sniffer organisation, which specialises in fraud detection, this scam offers a “ready-to-use” service to malicious individuals wishing to steal from others, in return for 20-30% of the loot obtained
Inferno Drainer, a new wave of phishing scams
Inferno Drainer: that’s the name of the hot new scam affecting many unsuspecting crypto investors. Revealed by the Scam Sniffer organisation, which specialises in scam and phishing research, Inferno Drainer sells a “ready-to-use” service to ill-intentioned people who want to scam other individuals, with the only quid pro quo being that they have to pay back 20% of their loot.
1/ Inferno Drainer, a scam vendor specializing in multi-chain scams, has stolen $5.9 million in assets from nearly 4,888 victims through over 689 phishing websites targeting popular projects.https://t.co/OEjdzHm2Ls
– Scam Sniffer (@realScamSniffer) May 19, 2023
According to data compiled in real time by Scam Sniffer, 4,888 people have already fallen victim to Inferno Drainer, to the tune of around $6 million at the time of writing.
Active since the beginning of February, Scam Sniffer is said to be particularly active on the Ethereum blockchain (ETH), which alone has stolen more than $4.3 million, followed by Arbitrum (ARB), Polygon (MATIC) and the BNB Chain.
The data provided here by Scam Sniffer is based on the discovery of Inferno Drainer’s address, itself found by cross-referencing transaction data shared on Telegram. It turns out that the address in question was already listed with Scam Sniffer, which made it possible to link it to other addresses associated with scams and malicious activities in general.
700 fraudulent sites for over 220 projects
According to Scam Sniffer, more than 220 projects or brands have been targeted by Inferno Drainer, mostly through fake sites aimed at stealing their visitors’ cryptocurrencies. 120 sites alone are said to involve the PEPE token, which suggests that those using Inferno Drainer are counting on the hype of certain projects.
In the same vein, we also find fake sites relating to Optimism (OP), Sui, zkSync and Arbitrum, i.e. projects for which investors expect airdrop potential and are therefore more likely to search for them on the Internet.
We can also see from the Scam Sniffer report that some individuals have even made malicious copies of Revoke.cash, a site used by wallet users wishing to revoke rights granted to certain sites or protocols in order to make their cryptocurrencies as secure as possible.
Inferno Drainer provides the site and the malware, and then simply recovers 20-30% of the amounts stolen by users who subscribe to its service. One victim lost more than $400,000 alone, before pleading with the address to which his cryptocurrencies had been transferred to return at least half of his assets, to no avail.
Fraud involving the crypto ecosystem continues to grow every year, so we can only remind you to be extremely vigilant about the sites you visit and the rights you grant to certain protocols from your wallet.
