A major phishing campaign targeting Etherscan users has been discovered, with several advertisements on the Ethereum blockchain explorer identified as part of the scheme. On April 8, a community member named McBiblets alerted users to be cautious of wallet-draining advertisements on Etherscan that redirected them to phishing websites. Further investigations revealed that these phishing advertisements were not only present on Etherscan but also on well-known phishing websites. Scam Sniffer, a Web3 anti-scam platform, confirmed the spread of these advertisements on popular search engines like Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and social media platform X. The lack of oversight from advertisement aggregators was suspected as the main cause of this large-scale phishing campaign. The scam involved tricking users into visiting fake websites and linking their crypto wallets, allowing scammers to withdraw funds without permission. SlowMist, a blockchain security firm, issued a warning about these phishing advertisements, suggesting that the notorious Angel Drainer cyber phishing organization may be responsible, although concrete evidence of their identity remains unknown. In 2023, wallet-draining phishing scams stole nearly $300 million from over 324,000 victims. Scam Sniffer also reported that even when one operation shuts down, other phishing gangs quickly take their place, as there is no shortage of platforms catering to scammers.
Massive phishing campaign linked to Etherscan advertisements