A scam involving an app designed to look similar to that of China’s Ministry o
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a warning on the QQ social media platform to warn users of a new scam that emulated the ministry’s e-yaun app. The ministry states that the app and the web address are very similar to the ministry’s. However, the web address does not contain “ .gov” in it. The website also has some details missing that are on the Ministry’s website.
From that landing page, the user is encouraged to download an app. With that comes an official-looking form to fill out with personal information before “allowing” the user to connect to a bank account. Even if the user does not upload funds, data mining has already occurred.
Old problems in new wrappers
While China tries to remain at the forefront of Central Bank Digital Currencies deployment, the program has run into a variety of problems outside of the fakes that regularly prey on the unknowing. For example, in January 2024, a court in Shanghai handed down China’s first sentence for money laundering with the help of cryptocurrency. With 260 million apps already used in China alone, there are plenty of people who lack the skills to understand the mechanisms and cannot see what differences there are with the malware.
A global problem
The fake e-yaun problem is one that is not duplicated elsewhere in the world because China is further along in its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) trials than other currencies. However, crypto scams in general are a plague upon the industry and they can be found anywhere. Cryptocurrency analysis firm Chainalysis pointed out that in 2023 the volume of theft from hacking accounts halved compared to 2022.
In 2023, the total taken amounted to 54.3% to $1.7 billion. At the same time, more hacking incidents were recorded, at 219 in 2022 and 231 in 2023. In particular, Chainalysis points to improved security on De-Fi platforms as a factor in driving the take downward. One notable trend was that hacks based on smart contract exploitation dropped as the year progressed. This is despite the amount of money being held in DeFi protocols holding roughly steady in volume since April 2022.
Another factor is the increased use of bug bounty progams. Paying for people to find the weaknesses of the platform and contracts is a much less expensive alternative
