How to Protect Your Crypto Wallet from Scammers

• An unusual activity from a malicious application is detected which is threatening for the crypto world as well as its user. 
• The hackers used many technical aspects to make the app technologically strong. They also integrated modern tools to avoid any digital detection. 

The users from the crypto world are left shocked after the information of a new cyber threat is circulating over the internet. A malicious app available over the Google Play Store was developed to sweep up cryptocurrencies from the user’s accounts. 

There were no recognisable footprints of the application for being malicious for over 5 months after it got introduced in March 2024. As soon as it got detected, the app was removed from the platform. The fact that the app was operating without leaving its traces for straight 5 months makes it more dangerous and threatful. 

CheckPoint Research has released its report in which it is mentioned that ‘Wallet Connect- Airdrop Wallet’, a crypto drainer application was made to target Android users only. The hackers used many technical aspects to make the app technologically strong. They also integrated modern tools to avoid any digital detection. 

This application fulfilled all the legalities of the WalletConnect protocol, which is a link between crypto wallets and decentralised applications. The hackers in the name of this fake application have stolen about $70,000 which accounts for 58.6 lakh of cryptocurrency in the last 5 months. 

Also, the hackers manipulated the search rankings by posting fake positive reviews and using a crypto drainer toolkit. This has helped the scammers to get more than 10,000 downloads over the globe. 

The main difficulty that the hackers had somehow crossed is linking with WalletConnect. A lot of users do not have updated versions and all wallets do not support Wallet Connect. Some loopholes like this were cracked by scammers and they lured users by giving them an easy solution. 

After the users downloaded and set up this fake Wallet connect in their device, they were asked to first link their wallet. The hackers fooled users by showing legal crypto platforms which was a clone made by phishing websites to look authentic.

After the users linked their wallets and initiated transactions, the fake app immediately redirected it directly to the hackers. 

Soon after users realised about the attack, they took google play to post their negative reviews. But at that time also, scammers masked the negative reviews by flooding it with a lot of positive reviews. 

Using this technique, the scammers continued to fool many other users. 

How to secure your wallet?

There are several ways to secure your crypto wallet with some careful measures. Some of them are:

1. Installing auto updates 

By installing auto updates you can easily avail the latest version of the application which will help you to avoid trapping in any misleading information from any malicious servers. At the same time you have to make sure to use external security such as anti-virus and anti-malware. 

2. Making yourself vulnerable

Your cryptocurrency investments should not be a part of the showcase over your social media accounts. It is the biggest mistake which is often taken for granted to share your information such as trading activity, what you are earning and where are you investing and many more.  

3. Have a bird’s eye over malicious threats

Entering into the cyber world itself comes with a lot of threats. But, keeping a bird’s eye view over these malicious activities can surely protect you and your sensitive information from being exposed.