Sony’s Soneium Blockchain Crypto Wallet Identified as a Potential Drain, Alerts Scam Detection Service

A sponsored Google advertisement masquerading as a link to Sony’s blockchain initiative, Soneium, has been identified as a cleverly concealed crypto wallet thief, as reported by blockchain security company Scam Sniffer.

In a post dated October 22 on X, the firm explained that searching for “soneium” on Google directed users to a phishing site aimed at stealing cryptocurrency assets.

Scam Sniffer disclosed that the advertisement linked to a website with a domain name resembling Soneium’s official site, which presented itself as a legitimate yet incomplete landing page for a radiology service based in the UK.

Deceptive Site Contains Hidden Wallet Drainer

The fraudulent site featured a concealed wallet drainer, poised to take advantage of unsuspecting visitors.

“It’s easy to become a victim of phishing when you’re not vigilant, particularly if you accidentally type ‘Soneium’ as ‘Someium’,” Scam Sniffer clarified.

The firm further noted that the creators of the website employed advanced techniques to avoid detection by Google, complicating the search engine’s ability to flag the harmful advertisement.

Soneium is an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain created by Sony Block Solutions Labs, a collaboration between Sony and blockchain company Startale Labs. The platform initiated its testnet in August.

Searched for Soneium on Google, clicked a phishing ad.
After connecting your wallet and signing a phishing signature, your assets disappeared… pic.twitter.com/5Hpi9OTZ4S

— Scam Sniffer | Web3 Anti-Scam (@realScamSniffer) October 22, 2024

This recent occurrence follows a report from Scam Sniffer earlier this month, which indicated that over $46 million in cryptocurrency was taken from more than 10,800 phishing victims in September alone.

During the third quarter of 2024, more than $127 million in crypto assets were stolen, with Ether wallets being the primary targets of these phishing schemes.

Fake Wallet App Steals $70K in Crypto

In a separate incident, a counterfeit cryptocurrency wallet application on Google Play has allegedly swindled $70,000 from users in a sophisticated scam that has been characterized as a world-first for exclusively targeting mobile users.

The malicious app, named WalletConnect, imitated the legitimate WalletConnect protocol but was, in reality, a complex scheme to drain crypto wallets.

The deceptive application successfully tricked over 10,000 users into downloading it, according to Check Point Research (CPR), the cybersecurity firm that uncovered the fraud.

The perpetrators behind the app were acutely aware of the common challenges encountered by web3 users, such as compatibility issues and the limited support for WalletConnect across various wallets.

They cleverly promoted the fraudulent app as a remedy for these issues, capitalizing on the absence of an official WalletConnect app on the Play Store.

As reported, cybersecurity scammers are utilizing automated email responses to infiltrate systems and deploy stealthy crypto mining malware.

This follows another malware threat identified in August.

The “Cthulhu Stealer,” which impacts MacOS systems, similarly disguises itself as legitimate software and targets personal information, including MetaMask passwords, IP addresses, and cold wallet private keys.

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