Hackers have learned to steal cryptocurrency using QR codes

Police in New Wales, Australia, are warning citizens about a new scam involving allegedly found wallets on the streets and in parks. Law enforcement officers have already faced dozens of complaints from those who have fallen for the scam.

The fake wallets that the hackers «left» in many locations contained a QR code that, according to the scammers' plan, should be scanned by those who find the wallet. After scanning the code, the person was asked to click a link to access the crypto wallet, which allegedly contained $ 16,000 in the account. The potential victim was then asked to pay a withdrawal fee. the «hook» was that when making a transaction, the user gave the fraudsters access to their own wallet.

«After paying the withdrawal fee, the user’s digital assets were stolen from their real cryptocurrency wallet. So if you find something that looks like a 'paper digital wallet', keep in mind that it could be a scam,» the New Wales Police warned citizens.

The police urged Australians not to scan the QR code, log in to the account, provide personal information to unknown persons online, and report any suspicious items to law enforcement.

Recently, we told you about Shen Bo, the founder of the blockchain startup Fenbushi Capital, who fell victim to hackers — unknown cybercriminals stole digital assets worth more than $ 42 million from his cryptocurrency wallet. The reason for the loss of a significant amount of crypto was that Shen Bo used the Binance-pay-integrovana-v-trust-wallet/" data-wpel-link="internal">popular Trust Wallet crypto w allet. The vulnerability discovered by the attacker was that the code to the wallet was stored in his smartphone, so after the smartphone was hacked, it was simply stolen.