The FBI is warning crypto holders about a North Korean hacking scheme that uses fake video meetings and deepfakes to steal digital assets. On Thursday, the Justice Department said it has disr
The FBI is warning crypto holders about a North Korean hacking scheme that uses fake video meetings and deepfakes to steal digital assets.
On Thursday, the Justice Department said it has disrupted infrastructure tied to the campaign, dubbed “FaceStealer,” which has led to more than $400 million in thefts over the past 18 months.
“North Korean cyberactors aggressively target companies and individuals in the cryptocurrency and Web3 industries with highly tailored, hard-to-detect social engineering campaigns, stealing billions of dollars in cryptocurrency in recent years,” the FBI shared the information.
Hackers send meeting invitations from accounts stolen from earlier victims.
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Once a target joins, the hackers record the webcam feed and play a prerecorded video of someone the target knows, making it look like a trusted contact is on the call.
Deepfake videos of well-known crypto and Web3 figures are also used.
Then comes the trap. The hackers stage a fake technical error, such as claiming the target cannot be heard, and offer a link to fix it. That “fix” installs malware.
According to the FBI, in several cases, funds were stolen and accounts hijacked months, even more than a year, after the initial compromise.
Open-source developers are also targeted, apparently to enable software supply-chain attacks.
“If you can’t imagine a scenario where you might fall prey to it, you are not thinking creatively enough,” said Patrick Grandy, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
Separately, the Justice Department said North Korean military hackers, tracked as “TraderTraitor,” stole more than $6 billion in digital assets from Binance on or about Oct. 29.
Authorities and private-sector partners have frozen more than $2.7 billion, and courts have authorized seizing or restraining over $1.2 billion. Laundering through mixers and bridges continues.
The hackers behind the largest crypto theft on record are laundering their haul through memecoins they mint themselves.
North Korea-linked launderers created worthless tokens on NEAR, Tron and Solana, then routed stolen Binance funds through decentralized exchange pools built around them, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
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