The crypto space is not free from fraud and illicit activities. Bittrex fraud is one of them. Usually, the frauds consist of fake exchange or wallet websites.
The folks are often contacted via emails, which are usually nearly unsuccessful. These kinds of problems are the ones that have always needed attention. And five years ago, one such problem arose when the top google search results for the Bittrex website was a phishing website.
The method of attack is quite an older one now, but it can’t be assured if these kinds won’t repeat themselves in the future. The illicit actors tend to have a deep knowledge of how the accounts and wallets operate, and they sometimes get pretty successful in emptying the accounts of innocent users.
But in the case of Bittrex, it became a bit difficult to do so following an upgrade that the company carried out back then. It introduced a mandatory email-based 2FA for all the users upon logging in, which it did concerning the growing number of phishing frauds.
Bittrex’s Evil Twin Hijacked Google Searches
Five years ago, the top search result for Bittrex on Google resulted in a Phishing fraud. It was one of the sponsored ads that showed up while people searched for it. Ironically, the domain name in question was bittrex(dot)ltd, and it used a fake description that made it look similar to a legitimate one.
This instance came as another example of why people need to be very careful while Googling for Website addresses instead of entering them manually. The novel users who can’t remember the domain name are more prone to becoming the targets of such phishing frauds.
But it was hard to believe that the Bittrex website that showed up in the result looked very much alike to the original one. However, if someone would have noticed more closely, it said you are using Bittrex(dot)com. And that this domain name was registered two weeks ago, which indicated the fraud has been going on for quite some time.
It was specified that the registering entity was using Cloudflare protection. But the ad did not show up to some folks depending upon their regions, which indicated that google might be carrying out action against the fraud.
It is hard to say that these frauds like that of Bittrex won’t take place in the future. In fact, in the present times, fraudsters and illicit actors have come up with new ways to carry out their intended frauds.
But anyway, Cybercriminals are very well aware that individuals store a lot of money in an exchange wallet. Still, it is in the hands of the users to take precautionary measures to safeguard themselves from fraud. And the cryptocurrency industry is a concept that is witnessing the emergence of the latest and updated technologies. In contrast to five years ago when this Bittrex fraud happened, alongside fraudsters using new ways to exploit the people.
However, there is nothing to worry about security if we only pay a little more attention to the development of a project. Security issues are inevitable, and these hackers are going to crawl over the space anyway. One thing we can do is identify the threat and eliminate it before the crawler finds it. In short, we have to make a move before the hacker does.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/04/02/when-bittrex-phishing-fraud-overshadowed-the-google-searches/