Cyber criminals are sending out millions of phishing emails a day, using extortion and other schemes to steal Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from victims. The phishing attacks use a variety of techniques to trick people into transferring sums of Bitcoin, including phony requests for charity donations and business email compromise (BEC) scams. According to a report by cybersecurity researchers at Proofpoint, the company blocks an average of one million extortion emails every day, with some days peaking at nearly two million. Researchers say most of these phishing emails and BEC attacks are asking the victim to make payments in cryptocurrency. “Cyber criminal threats to cryptocurrency are not new, however as the general public experiences growing adoption of cryptocurrency, people may be more likely to engage with social engineering lures using such themes,” said Sherrod DeGrippo, vice president of threat research and detection at Proofpoint.
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