According to a blockchain security firm, a group of cryptocurrency scammers have successfully duped over 42,000 victims, stealing upwards of $32 million since April 2023.
Even the industry's reputed "rug pull detectors" couldn't identify their cunning scheme.
Scammers relied on creating fake tokens that pretended to be those of a soon-to-launch crypto project to capitalise on investor FOMO (fear of missing out).
The head of security research at Blockfence, Pablo Sabbatella, exposed the scammers' unique modus operandi in a January 18 report.
They falsified the token's maximum supply through minting and burning and employed a deceptive bait-and-switch coding tactic.