NFT News by Thebittimes.Com

According to the bank, potential cryptocurrency investors usually make an average of three payments before recognizing they’ve fallen victim to a scam. One of the Big Four banks in the U.K., Lloyds Bank, has said that reports of cryptocurrency investment scams by victims have surged by 23% in the current year compared to the same period in 2022. According to a press release published by Lloyds Bank, an increasing number of investors face the threat of falling victim to fraudulent schemes through a wave of fake adverts posted on social media. Each victim of a crypto currency investment scam is losing an average of $13,115 (£10,741), an increase from $8,562 (£7,010) the previous year. This surpasses losses from other consumer frauds like romance scams or purchase scams . Screenshot of the report from Lloyds Bank                Source: Lloyds Bank According to the report, individuals aged 25 to 34 constitute a quarter of all crypto scam victims, making it the most prevalent age group a...

This week, Binance takes the spotlight amid allegations of market manipulation and sanction violations. Meanwhile, regulators ramp up enforcement actions against a backdrop of crypto-related crimes — the latest involving Pepe Coin. Binance’s SEPA concerns Binance emerged as a focal point of attention this week, owing to a sequence of circumstances.  The official Twitter support of the exchange alluded to a momentary cessation in EUR transfers, indicating the temporary suspension of SEPA transfers, without specifying a definite timeline for reinstatement. Despite the lack of explicit reasons, Binance’s efforts to keep users informed maintain an air of anticipation about whether external factors might be at play. Following reports of the concerns related to SEPA transfers, the company promptly addressed the situation through an official statement provided to crypto.news. According to a Binance representative, the SEPA deposit and withdrawal services will be availa...

Simon Callaghan said that efforts need to start on social media and telecommunication channels where most cryptocurrency scams originate. Blockchain Australia’s new CEO, Simon Callaghan, is urging Australia’s banks, the government and the crypto industry to come together to combat rising cryptocurrency scams. Speaking on the final day of Australian Block chain Week in Melbourne on June 30, Callaghan announced the association will now be focused on helping prevent scams that involve crypto , among its other efforts . Simon Callaghan speaking at Australian Blockchain Week on June 30. Source: Cointelegraph “We're going to have to work with the banking sector. We're going to have to work with the government,” the CEO said, stressing the need to protect consumers. Callaghan however noted that scams often originate on social media or through telecommunication channels — noting that policing efforts need to start from the point of first contact: “Crypto is either an exit point or m...

Artificial intelligence is going to be a key component in cracking down on the growing number of counterfeit non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Beyond all the good a permissionless internet promises, it also makes it convenient for anyone to freely mint pirated nonfungible tokens (NFTs). There are in fact over 90 million fake copies of NFTs. Because in a permissionless system, what’s to stop bad actors from creating copymints to scam unsuspecting users or damage a brand’s reputation? Only the top 20 most copied NFT projects account for 8 million fake copies across NFT marketplaces. Source: Optic.xyz Since NFTs are valuable only because of their uniqueness, such copycat NFTs are fundamentally worthless for consumers. They imply a massive reputational cost besides financial loss for buyers and creators. This is particularly detrimental to a nascent and emerging industry like NFTs.  The “nonfungibility” and rarity of NFT assets are pivotal to their value proposition. These are the qualities b...

An Arbitrum-based algorithmic stablecoin project has fallen prey to a smart contract exploit, seeing $2 million stolen from users. Prospective users of an Arbitrum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) project have been left out of pocket following a $2 million exploit . Web3 security firm CertiK flagged the incident on Feb. 21, following an announcement from the Hope Finance Twitter account notifying users that they had been scammed. #CommunityAlert @hope_fin have announced the community has been scammed for ~$2m making this the largest #exitscam on Arbitrum in 2023. $1.86m was transferred to @TornadoCash. Hope_fin have posted steps for user's to withdraw their staked LPhttps://t.co/hJbFXiKujt — CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) February 21, 2023 Details of the project are difficult to come by. The platform’s Twitter account was launched in January 2023 and outlined plans for an algorithmic stablecoin called $HOPE which dynamically adjusts its supply relative to the price of ETH....

A new suite of tools for Web3 businesses targets the safety and security of transactions, websites and smart contacts to combat exploits. A big concern for users in decentralized finance (DeFi) is its susceptibility to exploits. A report from Privacy Affairs revealed hackers stole $4.3 billion worth of cryptocurrency from January to November 2022 — a 37% increase from the previous year. Such exploits harm the integrity of companies and fuel skeptics from outside of the space in their case against cryptocurrencies. However, in a Feb. 2 announcement from Web3 Builders, the company revealed a suite of tools to combat this issue. The initial browser extension TrustCheck was created to flag Web3- related Scams before users continue to interact with them. This new suite of tools builds on that via a Web3 Builders transaction checker, website checker and smart contract checker. Ricky Pellegrini, the CEO of Web3 Builders, said this is an integral moment for the industry to prove its trust...

A whitelist is a list of wallet addresses with priority access to an NFT collection before making it available to the general public. Crypto-based scams are constantly sweeping the nonfungible token (NFT) space; therefore, staying updated is the most significant way to prevent both new and existing NFT scams. Other than fraud, intense rivalry for newly minted NFTs may cause prices to rise and transaction fees to skyrocket, making them unaffordable for early supporters.  Nonetheless, these issues have been solved by NFT providers by establishing whitelists or allowlists, giving special privileges and access to a newly minted nonfungible token. Before public minting begins, nonfungible token projects employ allowlists to restrict who can mint NFTs. For example, one can mint NFTs without being concerned about gas wars if they are on the whitelist. This article will discuss the NFT whitelisting concept and process, why NFT whitelists are used, and how to get on an NFT whitelist. What is a...

Phishing sites are making the private auction feature look like a way to log in, luring victims to give up their NFTs unknowingly. As nonfungible tokens (NFTs) became more popular, bad actors who constantly try to exploit users within the space have become more active. Now, a new hack involving a feature on the NFT marketplace OpenSea threatens NFT holders through phishing sites.  In an announcement, anti-theft project Harpie warned NFT users of a new hack involving gasless sales on the OpenSea platform. According to Harpie, hackers were able to steal millions in digital assets by exploiting the feature. When users want to conduct gasless sales within the OpenSea platform, they are required to approve a signature request with an unreadable message. With this feature, users are also able to allowed to create private auctions with unreadable signatures. Hackers have been able to steal NFTs like magic with a little-known OpenSea feature. It's the newest hack, and multiple millions ...

Despite dismissing the case, the judge acknowledged the lawsuit reflects a potentially dangerous trend of fraudulent-like promotional schemes. A federal judge in California has dismissed a class action lawsuit against reality TV star Kim Kardashian, boxing champ Floyd Mayweather and the founders of EthereumMax, explaining that the submissions failed to meet the “heightened pleading standards” for fraud claims. The judge has, however, left room for the plaintiffs to refile the proposed class action lawsuit if certain provisions are amended. In the original Jan. 7 Court filing submitted by Scott+Scott Attorneys At Law, the plaintiffs argued that Kardashian, Mayweather, and also former NBA superstar Paul Pierce didn’t disclose they were being paid to promote EthereumMax (EMAX). The plaintiffs alleged that they promoted it with the objective to “artificially inflate the price of the token” through the use of “false or misleading statements.” Kim Kardashian promoted EMAX in a Jun. 2021 p...