Unknown scammers have organized a fake bitcoin giveaway through a Russian government website they hacked. The news of the attack comes after a recent report revealed that damages from crypto-related fraud in Russia have reached $30 million in value in the first half of this year.

Regional Website of Russia Hacked by Scammers

The main website of the local administration in the Russian city of Ryazan, around 200 km southeast of Moscow, has been targeted by hackers twice in a single day, Rzn.info reported quoted by the crypto news outlet Forklog. Unidentified hackers published an advertisement offering cryptocurrency to anyone who downloaded a special app.

The scammers originally promised 0. 025 VTS to every visitor who installed the app. They later changed the offer to a prize of $1,000 in bitcoin for each of five randomly chosen participants in what was advertised as the “Ryazani online lottery.” Both ads have already disappeared from the mayoral site but the local news outlet published a screenshot of one of the ads.

Crypto Fraud in Russia Valued at $30 Million This Year

The volume of cryptocurrency-related fraud around the world has increased significantly in 2021. In the first half of the year, losses amounted to an estimated $1.5 billion, which is two to three times more than the total registered during the same period of last year, experts from the IT security company Zecurion told the Russian daily Izvestia.

According to the report published earlier this week, the Russian Federation accounts for 2% of the global amount – some $30 million, or almost 2.2 billion rubles. Analysts believe that the rise in crypto fraud is due to the increasing exposure of users to digital assets and the desire to quickly make profits in an expanding sector without much regulation, amid volatility in traditional financial markets. They also expect crypto fraud to continue to rise this year leading up to a 15% annual increase.

In July, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) announced it had identified 146 financial pyramid schemes in the first six months of the year. The number is 1.5 times higher in comparison with the same period of 2020. The regulator stated that fraudsters lure people with low financial literacy into investing scams related to crypto mining or cryptocurrencies. CBR said the increase in activity by “unfair market participants” was responsible for the rise in investment demand in Russia.

Blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis revealed this week that crypto addresses based in Eastern Europe have sent $815 million of digital currency to scams in a single year. The Russian-based Ponzi scheme Finiko received more than half the money that was transferred to scam addresses in the region. The pyramid was targeting crypto holders in Russian-speaking populations in the former Soviet space with promises of 30% monthly returns before it collapsed in July.

Do you agree with experts’ expectations that crypto-related fraud will continue to increase this year? Please comment below to share your views.

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