Security Firm: Hacker Disguises Rug Pull Contract as Crypto Trading Bot, Spreading It Through YouTube Video

BlockBeats News, August 7th, cybersecurity company SentinelLabs announced that it has discovered a series of cryptocurrency scams, in which hackers used a malicious smart contract disguised as a trading bot to spread and steal funds from cryptocurrency wallets.

The hackers utilized YouTube videos for marketing, where the videos explained the nature of the cryptocurrency trading bot and how to deploy the smart contract on the Remix Solidity compiler platform (a Web-based Web3 project integrated development environment (IDE)). The video instructions included a link to an external website hosting weaponized smart contract code. Additionally, the attackers managed the YouTube comments section, removing all negative comments.

Once victims deployed the smart contract, the attacker's wallet was added and hidden behind a disguised transaction address. After users deposited funds into the contract, the scammers were able to steal the funds.