Cryptocurrency scammers are targeting iPhone users through dating applications such as Tinder, Grindr, and Bumble, according to information security firm Sophos.<\/p>\n
The company says<\/a><\/strong> it identified a Bitcoin wallet containing tokens worth $1.4 million (R20.4 million) collected through dating app scams.<\/p>\n “This is just one bitcoin address, the tip of the iceberg. There could be several, with millions being lost,” said Jagdeesh Chandraiah, a senior threat researcher at Sophos.<\/p>\n “Once they’ve made contact with a target, the attackers suggest continuing the conversation on a messaging platform,” Chandraiah said.<\/p>\n “They then try to persuade the target to install and invest in a fake cryptocurrency trading app.”<\/p>\n The malicious cryptocurrency trading apps are distributed via fake websites, and scammers can take control of the victim’s iPhone by accessing their profiles on the fraudulent apps.<\/p>\n According to Sophos’s report, a victim had lost $87,000 (R1,269,717.00) in one instance, while another had lost $25,000 (R365,000) to a scammer who had contacted them through Grindr.<\/p>\n Victims of these scams have their personal information compromised in addition to being ripped off.<\/p>\n Sophos said that Apple should warn users installing apps through ad-hoc distribution or enterprise provisioning systems that it has not reviewed those applications as it does with regular apps on the App Store.<\/p>\n This will help mitigate the risk of these scams targeting less sophisticated users of iOS devices, Chandraiah said.<\/p>\n “We have shared details of the malicious apps and infrastructure with Apple, but we have not yet received a response from them,” said Chandraiah.<\/p>\n Information security firm Sophos has warned dating app users to watch out for a new breed of cryptocurrency-related scams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":418910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44696,27],"tags":[187,73452,51093,62652,73454,765,25075],"class_list":["post-418908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","category-security","tag-bitcoin","tag-bumble","tag-cryptocurrency-scam","tag-grindr","tag-jagdeesh-chandraiah","tag-sophos","tag-tinder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418918,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418908\/revisions\/418918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNow read: Critical security flaw exposed Joburg residents’ private info<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"