Chainalysis: 2024 was a record year for scammers, with more sophisticated tactics

Scam projects probably had a record year in 2024, as Chainalysis brings more evidence of stolen and laundered funds in its latest report. While hacks slowed down, other attack vectors targeted end users, extracting crypto with promises of gains, jobs, or other scam requests. 

Chainalysis estimated at least $9.9B were taken by scammers for the whole year, though a more detailed tally may bring up the sum to $12.4B.

Over 50% of the proceeds came from high-yield scams, enticing users with promises of high earnings. Another 33.2% of exploits targeted end users through any available leaked data, asking for funds directly or for actions that could endanger wallets. 

High-yield scams, however, seem to have peaked as users became more skeptical. However, the Smart Business Corp. scam is still around after years of warnings. This high-yield scheme has already drawn in $1.5B on-chain, spreading the funds to multiple wallets and centralized exchanges. 

Scammers also moved more quickly, abandoning long cons and romantic scams. Instead, they used work-from-home offers and other employment scams, which resulted in a larger number of small exploits. On average, Chainalysis notes a 24% growth of scam activity, expecting to re-estimate the 2024 year total to the higher range.

Huione Guarantee offers scam tools, serves as mixing service

Based on the latest discoveries, of all funds stolen in 2024, at least $379.5M were laundered through the Huione Guarantee market. The market, which allows peer-to-peer payments in stablecoins, is an ideal tool to hide USDT movements and make them extremely hard to trace.

From 2021 to date, Huione Guarantee has handled over $70B in crypto payments, a mix of legitimate sales and fund mixing. The market increased its share of inflows from scams, while other crypto hauls were laundered through DeFi.

Chainalysis traced several high-profile vendors who were interconnected, sending crypto to each other. Those vendors were most probably using each other’s services to launder scam funds. The vendors also provided services to each other and worked as a network to support more scam operations.

AI service vendors market a 1,900% growth of revenues, not only for laundering funds, but for trained chat bots and voice disguise software to facilitate more scams. AI software is most widely used for building legitimate-looking profiles. AI vendors were flagged as they received crypto from wallets that Chainalysis flagged for being a possible part of a scam network.

Infrastructure vendors, data management and social media services vendors were also among the most active on the platform. Huione vendors were key for building legitimate-looking sites for the scams, spreading social media clout, while data vendors sold user data and identifiable information to discover more targets.

Job scams expand and target North America and Europe

One type of crypto scam that expanded in 2024 was the job platform with unrealistically high payment rates. This type of scam made just around 1% of the hauls for victims, targeting North America and Europe. 

Job scams usually ask the target to create an account and complete a series of jobs on a platform. To unlock gains, the target must then deposit more crypto. The scam includes a customer support person or a mentor, who reassures the victim they will eventually receive their funds. 

Job scams have grown relatively slowly, noted Eric Heinz, global analyst at IJM. The traceability of crypto means the wallets of scammers are easily flagged and funds can be frozen, as job scams often use stablecoins. 

Scams usually originate from organized groups, with locations in Southeast Asia and Africa. Scam compounds make the operation more efficient, often with multiple campaigns originating from one compound. 

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