Crypto scammers are now “quantum experts” targeting bitcoin users
Developments and recent breakthroughs in quantum computing are now being used by crypto scammers, who are trying to trick potential victims into giving away their crypto assets.
Multiple reports have emerged online detailing screenshots of emails supposedly sent by major crypto hardware wallet brands Trezor and Ledger. The fake emails are designed to "inform” people about "quantum computing vulnerabilities."
"We're seeing multiple attempts to trick hardware users into compromising their funds by claiming there are quantum vulnerabilities that need to be patched. These claims are false, do not take action!" said Jameson Lopp, bitcoin (BTC) security expert and co-founder and CTO at BTC and ethereum (ETH) custody solutions company Casa.
For example, an email marked as sent by Ledger says that the "company" has already received "a number of reports from users about assets missing or being stolen directly from their accounts."
The scammers claim this was done by using "quantum computing to break cryptographic security" and urge users to implement their recently developed "mandatory cryptographic patch." The email claims that this upgrade introduces "quantum-resistant algorithms," and without it, assets will remain "exposed to this ongoing threat."
Meanwhile, the "Trezor email" is more technical, using more sophisticated terms in an attempt to trick crypto holders into believing that a "state-sponsored threat actor group from China [is] leveraging advancements in quantum computing."
The criminals themselves leverage terms such as Shor's algorithm, Elliptic Curve Cryptography, and others, commonly used in discussions about when a quantum computer might be able to derive a crypto asset's private key from its public key.
Just like with "Ledger," Trezor-impersonating scammers also urge users of this hardware wallet to update their wallet's firmware, stressing that without the update, assets will remain exposed to the threat.
According to the scammers, the new firmware implements "a post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) signature scheme based on the CRYSTALS-Dilithium standard," or a post-quantum cryptographic algorithm.
Therefore, it would seem that scammers have not only "defeated elliptic curve cryptography," as bitcoiner Clark Moody joked, but also found a "solution" to it.
"Sooner or later we will need to migrate to quantum-resistant wallets, but now is not that time. Don’t grow weary with the narrative. Work is progressing," another bitcoiner, @GingerSherpa, posted on X.
