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The number of successful crypto scams that implement AI has increased almost 200% over the past year.
In a blog post published yesterday, May 28, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis reported that of all the funds that victims sent to cryptocurrency wallets known to be associated with scams, 60% went to wallets associated with scammers using artificial intelligence. That’s up from a little more than 20% in 2024.
AI-powered crypto scams refer to scams that use AI for tactics such as deepfakes, phishing bots, fake trading platforms, voice cloning, and impersonation, the report said. At the emerging intersection of AI and crypto, “these scams are often harder to detect, faster to deploy, and disturbingly convincing,” Chainalysis reports.
While the use of AI tools is exploding across all sectors of the economy, cybercriminals are at the forefront, creating scams that “harness the speed, scale, and sophistication of modern machine learning (ML) models,” Chainalysis said, allowing for increased scale and faster execution:
Among the more creative scams made possible at scale by AI are fake investment bots that lure users into depositing funds. There are also reportedly entire trading platforms built around fake AI algorithms that guarantee high returns while siphoning off deposited crypto, and using AI generated images or credentials to bypass two-factor identification.
Chatbot scams, customer support impersonation and even AI-assisted so-called pig butchering scams that use social engineering tactics to build confidence over weeks or months are now far easier and don’t need much human input.
As the report notes, there’s even voice cloning and real-time scam calls, replicating the voice of someone the victim knows to get access to a wallet or crypto exchange account. Even hackers and scammers are getting scammed.
“Scammers are now operating at unprecedented speed and scale,” Chainalysis noted, continuing:
In April, blockchain security firm CertiK reported that over $364 million was lost to crypto exploits, hacks, and scams that month alone. The vast majority of the total losses in April stemmed from a single phishing attack, first flagged by on-chain investigator ZachXBT.
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