Decentralized finance platform Aave was hit by a phishing attack just a day after it reached a major achievement of $60 billion in net deposits across 14 different blockchain networks. According to data from Token Terminal, Aave’s net deposits have more than tripled over the last year, going from $18 billion in August 2024 to $60 billion now. This has made Aave the first DeFi protocol to reach such a high amount of total deposits.
Right after Aave announced its record achievement, scammers started running fake ads on Google. PeckShield, a blockchain investigation firm, alerted the crypto community that these ads led users to lookalike websites pretending to be official Aave investment platforms. When users clicked on such links, fake sites prompted users to link their crypto wallets. If a user did so, then the scammers would be able to steal all the funds from the wallet.
As soon as the wallet got linked to the phishing website, the scammers were able to transfer assets, and the transactions could not be cancelled, leading to the victims losing their money for good. The total amount of money stolen has not been established yet, but since Google Ads were utilized for the scam, the ads would have reached numerous users. Phishing scams are being increasingly used to mislead individuals into believing they are legitimate websites or services. To prevent getting ripped off, users should always verify the site URL first before connecting the wallet or sending any money.
If the user believes the wallet has been compromised, they should transfer funds to a new wallet right away. In addition, use token management tools and services to cancel any approvals that may have been made to questionable sites. Never reuse a compromised wallet because scammers can continue to follow and withdraw any money deposited into it in the future.
