Fake AI tutorials steal 274.6 ETH from victims

• Fake AI trading bot tutorials have led to the theft of 274.6 ETH from 224 victims.
• The stolen ETH was worth about $517,000 when the transfers occurred.
• The scheme used AI-generated presenters, YouTube tutorials and malicious smart contracts to direct users into deploying the contracts themselves.

A scam campaign has stolen 274.6 ETH from 224 victims through fake AI trading bot tutorials promoting malicious smart contracts.

The stolen Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) was worth about $517,000 when the transfers occurred, with the median victim losing 1 ETH.

The campaign has used nine near-identical YouTube tutorials featuring AI-generated presenters and voiceovers to promote fake arbitrage bots linked to Anthropic’s Claude.

The tutorials have directed users to deploy smart contracts, while the displayed code has reportedly been replaced with malicious code that redirected deposited ETH to attacker-controlled addresses.

Victims have collectively deployed 234 malicious contracts, with the stolen funds ultimately transferred to six collection addresses controlled by the operators.

The campaign has highlighted a scam method that uses apparently legitimate user actions to disguise malicious transactions, rather than relying solely on conventional phishing links.

The incident has added to wider concerns over AI-generated content being used to promote cryptocurrency scams and manipulate users into approving onchain transactions.

At the time of reporting, Ethereum price was $2,608.39.