What Happened: A new report from global cybersecurity firm BrandShield finds that suspicious domain registrations for Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) were up 13,331% since August 2020.
This percentage increase is 35 times greater than the number of suspicious domains registered for Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Since last year, suspicious domains registered for Ethereum and Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) were up 376% and 324%, respectively.
BrandShield’s analysis also found that in addition to the explosive growth in fake Dogecoin websites, cybercriminals were also leveraging Tesla Inc’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO, Elon Musk, name to defraud investors across social platforms.
Why It Matters: “As cryptocurrency receives more mainstream coverage, investors of all experience levels are flocking to the alternative capital markets, whether to trade assets for the first time or diversify their investments,” said Yoav Keren, co-founder, and CEO of BrandShield.
“It shouldn’t surprise anyone that cybercriminals are following the money and targeting retail investors with both increasing frequency and sophistication through a wide array of fraud schemes.”
Even cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase Global Inc (CRYPTO: BTC) and Binance became a popular target for cybercriminals.
Coinbase saw a 1728% increase in fake websites, while Binance saw a 616% increase over the same period.
A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report from earlier this year found that consumers lost over $80 million to crypto-related scams during the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021.
Price Action: At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $32,562, gaining 2.10% overnight.
Dogecoin was up by 2.61% during the same period, trading at $0.2196, while Ethereum rose by 0.53%, trading at $2,169 at the time of writing.