Ethereum layer 2 Base has seen an 18-fold increase in cryptocurrency funds stolen from phishing scams in March compared to January figures, recent data shows.
Approximately $3.35 million was stolen from phishing scammers on Base in March alone, according to blockchain anti-scam platform Scam Sniffer.
It marks a 334% month-on-month increase from February’s tally of $773,900 and a massive 1,880% spike compared to January, when Base only lost $169,000 from phishing scams, according to monthly Dune Analytics data compiled by Scam Sniffer.
Binance’s BNB Smart Chain observed a similar surge in phishing scams in March, Scam Sniffer noted in an April 2 X post.
Approximately $71.5 million was lost to phishing scammers across all chains from 77,529 victims — beating out January and February’s tallies of $58.3 million and $46.8 million, respectively.
Scam Sniffer noted that phishing links from fake X accounts remain a “primary tactic,” detecting over 1,500 incidents in March.
The rise in Base phishing scams comes amid a recent memecoin craze on the Coinbase-backed chain. It has helped push Base’s total value locked above $3.2 billion — marking a 370% increase so far in 2024, according to L2Beat.
Cointelegraph reached out to Scam Sniffer for comment.
Phishing scams may be up, but hacks are down
The surge comes despite crypto hack thefts falling 48% to $187.2 million in March, according to an April 1 X post from blockchain security firm PeckShield.
Related: Crypto hacking losses decline in Q1 2024 — Immunefi
The figure took into account the $98.8 million that was recovered over the month.
Almost all of those recoveries came from the $97million Munchibles exploit. Cryptocurrency sleuth ZachXBT was among those onboarded as a custodian to recover the stolen funds.
Meanwhile, Curio’s MakerDAO-based smart contract lost $40 million, according to updated figures from PeckShield and Prisma Finance fell victim to an $11.6-million hack. The firm is currently negotiating with the hacker on-chain to return those funds.
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