Introduction to Digital Forensics
Introduction to Digital Forensics 1
INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL FORENSICS
John Smith
University of Leeds
DFOR 210: Introduction to Digital Forensics
Professor Emily Carter
8 January 2025
Introduction to Digital Forensics 2
INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL FORENSICS
Introduction
With the growing importance of technological advancements making the digital world important in all aspects of life, criminal activities increase the importance of the digital forensic process as an essential part of security. Digital forensics is a methodological process of recognizing, capturing, and interpreting digital evidence supporting cybercrime prevention or incident investigation. Among them is an emerging threat in this domain: The Two Main Schemes Are Cryptocurrency Scams Exploiting the Lack of Blockchain Identification and Dependence on Public Figures. This essay is devoted to discussing the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) research about the cryptocurrency scams with celebrities’ endorsements on social media, the elaboration of the given celebrities’ activities, identification of the patterns, and the indication of the prospects for prevention. Toward this end, the essay presents actual examples and concrete fake Bitcoin addresses to explain who is behind the scams, the size of the fraud, how these scammers work to be successful, and what countermeasures can be applied against such new threats.
Part 1
Overview of the Scams
According to the statistics for 2021-2023, the use of celebrities’ identities has become one of the most popular trends in cryptocurrency scams. Often, hackers create fake accounts in the names of, for example, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and other known personalities who pose as people willing to share money in cryptocurrency (Reddy, 2024). These scams were mainly affected through social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
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Even research from cybersecurity companies such as Chainalysis suggests that such scams alone gross $100m during the same period under question, showing how much they affect unsuspecting individuals.
Operational Characteristics
Key operational characteristics include impersonation and visual authenticity; it promises high returns and the use of automated tools. They imitated real accounts with similar profile pictures and usernames, but with few character differences. Such measures were intended to make the users think the accounts were genuine. Posts have often stated that donating cryptocurrency to a specific wallet address would result in doubling or tripling the amount donated. This was usually in addition to the blackmail threats, where the messages contained information that made it seem as if there was a timeline under which the victim had to respond. Bots engage with scam messages by liking, sharing, or commenting on posts to give the impression of widespread popularity and endorsement (Lee et al., 2024). As per Twitter’s 2022 transparency report, the abovementioned tactics affected thousands of users worldwide before the preventive measures were developed.
Detection and Prevention
Preventing these scams automatically entails using ML models to identify the patterns of these scams. The following are some of the features that may be used to develop detection algorithms: repetition of known scammer phrases, patterns of account activity, and blockchain address analysis. Such headlines as “Send 0.1 BTC, get 0.2 BTC back!” are used by scammers over and over again. As a result, newly created accounts that post repetitive content within short timeframes can be noticed.
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Monitoring specific Bitcoin addresses of known scams can also prevent transactions with them (Bartoletti et al., 2021). CSAIL at MIT says that such ML-based systems could likely detect between 85% of fraudulent activities before they go viral.
Conclusion for Part 1
This analysis shows that celebrity-endorsed cryptocurrency scams are easily scalable and are automated in their approach. Despite its availability, open-source evidence can be helpful, but its credibility is questionable. Social media platforms must engage cybersecurity organizations to incorporate a better alert mechanism for these types of scams before they happen to reduce cases. In conjunction with public awareness programs, such a proactive approach could help cut the success rate of these fraudulent scams by a large margin.
Part 2
Impersonated Individuals
The scammers mainly focused on Elon Musk, using his link to cryptocurrency and his vast number of followers on social networks to mask their fraud. That is why Elon Musk became an excellent candidate for scammers and fraudsters who wanted to take advantage of people’s confidence in him as a well-known person in the tech and finance industries. By copying his activity, they could cheat many people into thinking that their fake giveaway contests were real. According to Cipher Trace, scams using Elon Musk’s image represented over a quarter of all cryptocurrency giveaway scams in 2022, proving that he was the most used by hackers (Li, Yepuri & Nikiforakis, 2023).
Suspected Perpetrators
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Though the identities of the people behind the scheme are unknown, the features of the scam indicate the participation of organized cybercriminals. These groups are frequently based in geographical areas that experience little scrutiny against the more modern cybercrime laws in Eastern Europe, Asia, and other such locations. Using technical elements, such as employing more automation and blockchain mixing services, reflects an enhanced form of a professional organization. Interpol sources indicate that most of these groups are affiliated with other broader groups dealing with web fraud, using the distributed nature of the structures to avoid identification.
Duration of the Scam
The scam operated for approximately six months in 2022, taking full advantage of the heightened public interest in cryptocurrency. The scammers could reach a broad audience and maximize their profits before their accounts were banned by posting links related to Bitcoin and Ethereum’s trending topics. An analysis of the timeline of related tweets also reveals the fact that the scam was carried out at the right time and at the right time when there were significant changes in the cryptocurrency market (Acharya et al., 2024). For example, while Bitcoin was on the rise in early 2022, scammers seized the chance to use their enthusiasm for digital currency, which shows how criminals are patient and think through their actions and the impacts they make on the market.
Financial Gains
An analysis of the two Bitcoin addresses regarding the transactions showed that these two addresses were receiving, on average, 12 BTC; at the average value of Bitcoin in 2022, this is equivalent to $500,000. This significant figure shows that Bitcoin scams are very lucrative, and the system is very exploitable.
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There is no doubt about this negative effect because the victims lose a considerable amount of money as well as undergo emotional strain because of the fraudulent transactions in which they participate. As blockchain analytics firm Elliptic pointed out, the reported losses are only more substantial and exclude numerous small transactions that remain unnoticed or unreported. This highlights that scams are rife, and from previous examples, it shows that the loss is only the tip of the iceberg.
Use of Ill-Gotten Profits
Self-made tracking tools on blockchains reveal that the stolen money was passed through cryptocurrency tumblers that combine several transactions to conceal the money’s source or destination. It is a standard method of ASX-listed companies’ cyber attackers, mostly applied to hide the identity of the attackers from law enforcement agencies. Further, it offers a way for the criminals to use the money that has been laundered and put it back into further chaotic ventures, making crime endless. Funds passed through these mixing services in 2022 were associated with unlawful activities, which proves their popularity in washing the stolen funds and their increasing engagement in the development of cybercrime in the world.
Conclusion for Part 2
The investigation highlighted that the cryptocurrency scams are organized, and the perpetrators fully utilize anonymity and the World Wide Web. While blockchain analysis helps display transaction flows, the lack of identification of the activities’ performers remains a significant drawback. One way to reduce such scams is to improve the interconnectivity between social media, financial institutions, and the police. Measures to prevent and track the popular mixing services can also become crucial for disrupting the economic flows of cybercriminals.
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Overall Conclusion
This report focuses on the constantly evolving threat of cryptocurrency scams that use social media and celebrity clones. Although technology provides solutions for identifying such activities, solving the problem requires analytical tools, educational initiatives, and international legislation. The conclusions made from this analysis suggest that preventive strategies should be put in place to protect computer networks from new risks.
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References
Acharya, B., Saad, M., Cinà, A.E., Schönherr, L., Nguyen, H.D., Oest, A., Vadrevu, P. and Holz, T., 2024. Conning the crypto conman: End-to-end analysis of cryptocurrency-based technical support scams. 2022 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), pp.17–35. Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10646605 [Accessed 26 December 2024].
Bartoletti, M., Lande, S., Loddo, A., Pompianu, L. and Serusi, S., 2021. Cryptocurrency scams: Analysis and perspectives. IEEE Access, 9, pp.148353–148373. Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9591634 [Accessed 26 December 2024].
Lee, S., Shin, D., Kwon, K.H., Han, S.P. and Lee, S.K., 2024. Disinformation spillover: Uncovering the ripple effect of bot-assisted fake social engagement on public attention. MIS Quarterly, 48(3), pp.847–872. Available at: https://openurl.ebsco.com/EPDB%3Agcd%3A3%3A2491251/detailv2?sid=ebsco%3Aplink%3Ascholar&id=ebsco%3Agcd%3A179387166&crl=c&link_origin=scholar.google.com [Accessed 26 December 2024].
Li, X., Yepuri, A. and Nikiforakis, N., 2023. Double and nothing: Understanding and detecting cryptocurrency giveaway scams. Proceedings of the 2023 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS).
Reddy, M., 2024. A study on the scams of cryptocurrency. International Journal of Humanities Social Science and Management (IJHSSM), 4(2), pp.481–496.