$9M Lost to Impersonation as Phishing Drives January Spike

[madmax]

Impersonation scams have emerged as one of the most financially damaging social engineering tactics in crypto. AMLBot traced at least $9 million in stolen digital assets over the past three months to attackers posing as exchange support teams, project representatives, or investment partners. CEO Slava Demchuk warned that urgent requests involving wallet access or fund transfers are common entry points for these scams, urging users never to share private keys or recovery phrases.

The broader threat landscape intensified in January, when crypto losses surged to $370 million — the highest monthly figure in 11 months — according to cybersecurity firm CertiK. Of that total, $311 million was attributed to phishing scams alone, including one social engineering attack that reportedly cost a single victim $284 million. The data underscores a growing reality in crypto: the weakest link isn’t always the technology — it’s human trust.

[cryptohog]

$311M from phishing alone is insane. tech isn’t failing — people are getting socially engineered.

[JanEmil]

Turn off DMs and most your risk gone.