Crypto Sector Beset by Hackers Posing as Recruiters

Hackers from North Korea are reportedly flooding the cryptocurrency sector with seemingly legitimate job offers.

As Reuters reported Thursday (Sept. 4), it’s part of a scam to steal digital assets, and a problem so widespread that job applicants have begun screening recruiters to spot signs they might be working for the North Korean government.

“It happens to me all the time and I’m sure it happens to everybody in this space,” said Carlos Yanez, a business development executive for Swiss blockchain analytics company Global Ledger, who was among those recently targeted by hackers.

Yanez said that while he avoided getting scammed, “it’s scary,” how far the North Koreans have come in their efforts in the last year.

The report said that while there’s no estimate of how much money is stolen via this tactic on its own, North Korean hackers were suspected of stealing at least $1.34 billion worth of crypto during 2024, according to blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis.

While the FBI has warned in the past about North Korea’s use of social engineering tactics to target the crypto sector, Reuters says its reporting offers previously unreported specifics on how these scams work.

It begins with contacting someone via LinkedIn or Telegram to pitch a blockchain-related employment opportunity. Following some back and forth, the “recruiter” would try to steer applicants to a website to run a skills test and record a video message.

One person who did record the message said he discovered more than $1,000 in crypto missing from his digital wallet later that day.

Nick Percoco, Kraken’s chief security officer, said that the exchange began seeing recruiting scams last year, and told Reuters it was difficult for companies to ferret out impersonators.

“Anybody out there can say they’re a recruiter,” he said.

These hackers’ efforts are happening amid a surge in social engineering fraud, which as of late 2024 had jumped 56% year over year, according to PYMNTS Intelligence research.

“The crypto world is not done evolving, and neither are the scams,” PYMNTS wrote in July in a report logging the history of crypto scams back to 2010.

“But businesses that internalize the lessons of this 15-year arc — from governance and transparency to consumer psychology and ethical design — may be best equipped to navigate the next frontier of digital innovation.”