Phishing in the crypto industry: attack schemes and effective protection

One of the most popular ways to steal cryptocurrency is phishing. According to experts from the well-known cybersecurity company CertiK, phishing is the main and most widespread threat in the crypto industry in 2025, with more than 250 incidents recorded and total losses totaling $726 million.

What is phishing?

Phishing is a form of cryptocurrency fraud in which attackers use fake versions of legitimate cryptocurrency websites to obtain users' confidential data and gain access to their assets.

The term "phishing" originated from a combination of the words "password" and "fishing".

There are several common forms of phishing:

• Fake websites and applications that imitate original cryptocurrency services:
• Malicious software distributed through private chats or email campaigns;
• Phishing browser extensions;
• Fraudulent Telegram bots offering airdrops (free cryptocurrency distributions) and giveaways.

How does phishing work?

To understand what phishing is and how to protect yourself from it, you need to examine how the attack works.

Phishing targets users of specific platforms, such as cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets, or services. The main goal of phishing is to obtain users' confidential data:

• Private keys or wallet seed phrases;
• Logins and passwords for exchange accounts and crypto services, as well as one-time access codes.

The main phishing distribution channels are:

• Phishing emails;
• Phishing messages in private and group unmoderated chats;
• QR codes are published in open access.

The phishing mechanism is quite simple:

• In a private chat or by email, someone informs the user of bad news and demands urgent action regarding their account or wallet;
• Then the user is asked to follow a link or download an application to receive assistance.
• The provided website or application requests authentication data, and if the user complies, they become a phishing victim.

How to recognize phishing and avoid losing assets

Do not share confidential information

The first step in protecting yourself from phishing is always remembering that passwords and private keys are confidential user data.

During a phishing attempt, attackers may impersonate customer support representatives of a crypto service to obtain private information. However, this is always deception. Real company employees will never request confidential information in private chats — only scammers do that.

There are currently no dedicated anti-phishing tools for messengers. Still, in some of them, for example, Telegram, when starting a new chat, useful information about the account creation date and recent changes is displayed. If the account that contacted the user was created very recently, this should raise suspicion.

If phishing is related to exchange accounts, built-in tools such as two-factor authentication and anti-phishing codes (for example, on Binance) can help protect against such attacks. The anti-phishing code is displayed in the user's profile and helps confirm that the resource is authentic.

If a user suspects they are being targeted by a phishing attack and their cryptocurrency is at risk, they should create a new wallet in the official application and transfer their assets to it.

Do not give in to emotions

During phishing attempts, attackers use negative triggers as "bait" to catch victims. For example, a popular trigger phrase is: "Urgently create a wallet backup, otherwise your funds will be lost."

These phrases may vary, but they share one goal: to instantly provoke fear of losing assets and push the user to perform the target action (entering a seed phrase / private key/login, or password). The most important thing to do when phishing is suspected is to remain calm and think rationally.

Verify senders and message content

If a suspicious message arrives by email or in a private chat, the first step is to verify the authenticity of the sender to rule out phishing. The sender's email domain must match the URL of the original crypto website, and official representatives' nicknames should be marked in support chats.

It should always be remembered that employees or administrators of crypto chats will never initiate private messages on their own.

Antivirus tools such as Norton and Bitdefender can help detect phishing emails. These services allow scanning of emails and web pages for phishing threats.

Verify the authenticity of websites and applications

Original exchange and wallet websites are usually displayed at the top of search results. However, clicking on advertising links is unsafe — they may lead to phishing sites.

In addition, always check the website's URL when following a link. For example, the URL of the MetaMask wallet and the Uniswap exchange cannot look like trust-wallet.org or uni-swap.org — this is clear phishing.

To protect yourself against phishing when creating a wallet or exchange account, save the original service links in your browser bookmarks or in a separate document for quick access.

If phishing is suspected, a suspicious website can be checked using phishing databases through tools such as PhishFort and Database Against Phishing. It is also important to note that many browsers, such as Firefox, Opera, and Brave, support built-in phishing detection tools.

Applications should be downloaded from official stores such as the App Store and Google Play. However, phishing can still appear there, so it is best to install applications via links from official crypto websites.

Use anti-phishing protection tools

Some browsers and crypto wallets, such as MetaMask, include built-in anti-phishing protection. When visiting a fake website, the user will be warned that the web address is listed as a phishing resource.

With the Rabby wallet, users can check approvals — permissions granted to a smart contract when a transaction is signed. Additionally, for phishing protection, a smart contract can be checked for suspicious functions and fraudulent tags using explorers such as Etherscan or service databases like RugDoc and Honeypot.

For additional phishing protection, users can install special web plugins such as NetCraft, Avast Online Security, and McAfee WebAdvisor. The more tools a user combines, the less likely they are to learn what phishing is through personal experience.