Four out of the primary 5 results presented once querying Google for a “bitcoin qr generator” result in scam websites.
The findings
Cryptocurrency wallet ZenGo wrote the findings in a very blog post published on Aug. 29. Reportedly, once researching before implementing QR Code support in their wallet, ZenGo learned of the prevalence of scam QR Code generators. the corporate explains however the alleged scam works:
“These sites generate a QR code that encodes an address controlled by the scammers, rather than the one requested by the user, therefore leading all payments for this QR code to the scammers.”
QR codes are the simplest way to share data (in this case public keys) in a very visual way that may be scanned with devices that includes a camera — usually a smartphone. Such codes are believed by several to be the foremost convenient thanks to share a wallet address when in-person — in retail transactions, for instance — since it avoids the requirement to type long strings of apparently random characters.
Successful scams
During their investigation, ZenGo researchers distinguished that a number of those scams have gone as so much as conjointly changing the addresses contained within the clipboard to the scam address. Some, on the opposite hand, customized the scam address to be of an analogous format to the one provided by the user. Lastly, the corporate notes that those scams also are successful:
“Summing up the balances of the scammy addresses we had determined, we found out concerning scams price about $20K. we assume they're simply the tip of the iceberg, as scammers probably change their addresses to avoid detection and blacklisting.”
As Top Market Group reported in July, the South Korean Justice Ministry estimates that cryptocurrency-related crimes have caused a pair of.69 trillion won (about $2.28 billion) of economic harm between July 2017 and June 2019.
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