According to a report by web3 security firm Cyvers, pig slaughter scams resulted in $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency losses in 2024, making it the most serious fraud scheme of the year.
Long-term fraud methods that prepare victims to make significant investments over time will surpass other forms of cryptocurrency fraud in 2024. The report highlighted that $3.6 billion of the stolen funds were tracked on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain alone.
Pig slaughter surges
Cybers tracked more than 150,000 addresses and 800,000 transactions linked to pig slaughter scams, demonstrating the scale of the problem. The report follows the FBI’s announcement that the 2023 hog cull plan is estimated to result in losses of $3.96 billion.
The report also highlighted that scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, noting that many victims are being lured through dating apps and social media platforms. Scammers would create fake profiles, build trust over weeks or months, and convince victims to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms that appeared legitimate.
With pig slaughter scams on the rise, Cyvers recommended increased user education, increased wallet security measures, and increased regulation of cryptocurrency platforms. The company also emphasized the importance of real-time monitoring and advanced threat detection systems to mitigate potential losses.
Cyber Threats and Recovery
By 2024, cyber threats will increase by 40%, resulting in 165 incidents resulting in $2.3 billion in losses. Despite the surge, overall losses remained 37% lower than in 2022.
Ethereum has been a major target for fraudsters, with access control violations resulting in $1.9 billion in losses across 67 incidents. Smart contract abuse resulted in $456.8 million in damages, while single-address poisoning incidents resulted in $68.7 million in stolen funds.
Efforts to combat fraud have recovered $1.3 billion this year, thanks to on-chain investigators such as ZachXBT and bug bounty programs.
The first quarter of this year saw the highest number of incidents, with 53. However, the biggest financial losses occurred in the third quarter, totaling $760 million.
Serious incidents include the $305 million DMM Exchange breach resulting in private key compromise, the $235 million hack targeting WazirX via a multi-signature wallet vulnerability, and the $52 million loss suffered by BingX after a hot wallet exploit. It works.
According to the Cybers report, access control incidents accounted for 81% of all losses, despite only accounting for 41.6% of all reported cases.