Fraudsters ‘sophisticated’ crypto Ponzis for pork farming: chain analysis

As law enforcement gets better at picking off fraudsters, crypto-savvy cybercriminals are turning to pork butchering against long-burned “Ponzi schemes.”

In the year In the second part of its Cryptocrime mid-term update published on August 29, blockchain security and compliance firm Chinalysis reported that pork scams will increase in 2024.

He pointed out that crypto-fraudsters are adapting their on-chain and off-chain strategies to create short-lived, vicious scams.

The average lifetime of crypto scams has decreased significantly from 271 days in 2020 to 42 days in 2024.

Eric Jardine, head of cybercrime research at Chainalysis, told Cointelegraph that the decline in fraud lifetimes is a testament to the effectiveness of law enforcement efforts.

“These interventions have forced fraudsters to quickly change their infrastructure, making it difficult to track down the chain. Still, it doesn't mean it's impossible to track and shut down more, and law enforcement interventions and asset recovery are encouraging.”

In addition, 43 percent of year-over-year frauds were directed to active wallets in 2024, indicating a rise in new frauds, many of which are pork butchers. The report indicated:

“This macro trend is consistent with the continued pivot of fraudsters from many Ponzi schemes to a wide net of targeted campaigns such as pork farming.”

Phishing is a technique in which the fraudster creates an online relationship with the victim, before tricking them into investing in a fraudulent crypto project, which ultimately results in a carpet-pulling or other financial loss.

The pole has been moved in part by increasing enforcement efforts and stable coin issuers listing fraudulent addresses, according to Chainalysis.

In the year One of the largest fraudulent wallets created in 2024 is linked to Myanmar's KK Park, a pork farm that has generated more than $100 million so far this year.

In addition, scammers are buying up-to-date social media profiles from China-based services such as Facebook, Tinder and Match.com to use in pork-bashing campaigns.

Illegal services selling social media accounts have seen a steady increase in crypto flows worth more than $10 million over the past two years, and up to two million social media profiles may have been purchased by fraudsters to target victims, he said.

Regarding the demographics of these scams, Jardine says that interpersonal scams foster a relationship between the scammer and the victim:

“Initially, those most likely to form these relationships are the most vulnerable. This can include the elderly, people in transition, and people looking for online friendship or romance.”

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One such illegal marketplace is Huione Guarantee, which has handled over $49 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since 2021.

The platform facilitates a variety of illegal activities, including pig farming, investment fraud and money laundering, and connects buyers and sellers through messaging platforms such as Telegram.

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