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An analysis conducted by security expert OKHotshot, as reported by The Block, has revealed a significant surge in phishing attacks targeting approximately 900 Discord servers since December 2021, particularly within the last three months.
Over the course of the past nine months, these attacks have impacted the wallets of around 32,000 victims, resulting in the theft of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies valued at approximately $73 million.
Another security expert known as Plam has shed light on the fact that approximately 95 percent of these server breaches can be attributed to individuals under the age of 18, many of whom are still attending high school.
“Having personally spoken to many of them, I can confirm that they are indeed high school students. They tend to splurge their ill-gotten gains on laptops, phones, trendy shoes, and allocate a significant amount of money towards the popular gaming platform, Roblox,” he emphasized.
Concealing Their Actions: Strategies Used by High School Students to Cover Their Tracks
To cover their tracks, attackers resort to paying individuals to utilize their personal information for signing up on exchanges, thus obscuring the trail during withdrawal transactions. However, these efforts are insufficient to evade suspicion, and if it were not for the limited interest shown by law enforcement agencies, many of these hackers would have already faced legal consequences.
In contrast, North Korean hackers, who also engage in NFT phishing, typically employ more conventional schemes, making their thefts comparatively easier to trace. In the case of school children, the majority of their attacks are conducted using their own technological resources.
Billions of Dollars at Stake in NFT Thefts
According to De. Fi Rekt, numerous cryptocurrency projects have fallen victim to hacks, exploits, and scams this month alone, with the most significant incident occurring on June 4 when unidentified individuals hacked Atomic’s cryptocurrency wallet, resulting in the theft of $35 million in assets.
In total, fraudulent activities in the crypto industry have led to the staggering loss of $76.6 billion, with only a fraction, approximately $6.59 billion, successfully recovered.