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<ul><li><keyword id="1905050" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="solana" source="Orion">Solana</keyword>’s blockchain platform is often touted as a possible alternative to Ethereum.</li><li>Scaling issues are common for many blockchain platforms, but Solana has suffered multiple breakdowns in less than six months.</li><li>Solana suffered an inadvertent <keyword id="1058878" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ddos-attack" source="Orion">DDoS attack</keyword> less than a month ago.</li></ul>The Solana blockchain, which is often touted as a competitor to Ethereum, has suffered an outage for the third time in a matter of months. It’s unclear whether the issue was a simple network failure because of high traffic or whether the network collapsed because of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack by hackers. “Solana went down again at two o'clock in the morning (UTC+8) on January 4th. According to users of the official Telegram community, the attacker is suspected of using spam to conduct a DDoS attack,” <a href="https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain/status/1478164890682462211?s=20">tweeted</a> crypto journalist Colin Wu. He added that the network returned to normal after five hours, at 7 o’clock on the same day. <div type="twitter" handle="WuBlockchain" handlename="Wu Blockchain" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1343054286935093249/6FYHByvl_normal.jpg" favoritecount="758" retweetcount="200" status="Solana went down again at two o'clock in the morning (UTC+8) on January 4th. According to users of the official Tel… https://t.co/MsRPYFSPNc" createdat="1641256947000" id="1478164890682462211"></div> Other reports indicate that it took about four hours for the network to come back up. “Another year.. and another episode of Solana going down. Today it went down for a few hours in the early morning Asia time, and it took almost 4 hours to bring it back up. The Solana community blames it on a DDOS attack. Lol,” a post on the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/rvnzp3/solana_went_down_again_on_4th_jan_morning_utc_8/">subreddit</a> for Solana said less than a day ago. There have also been many reports on Twitter, which include everything from just a very slow network to a large DDoS attack that took the whole network down. The Solana Foundation has confirmed none of these yet, though it can’t really deny the fact that the network witnessed slowdown, since the same can be tracked in real time. Solana Labs co-founder Yakovenko, though, has <a href="https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko/status/1478431040620220416?s=20">tweeted</a> that the issue wasn’t a DDoS attack. “It’s not a DDoS, just pain (sic) of getting a new runtime commercialized,” he wrote. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="wazirx" comment="wazirx" text="wazirx">wazirx</cmsannotation> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Why does it matter?" comment="subhead" text="Why does it matter?">Why does it matter?</cmsannotation> As the Reddit post cited above said, “A network that goes down this often will never be able to attract serious traders.” Solana is often touted as the fastest blockchain network on the planet, though many argue that Algorand is a viable alternative too. Nevertheless, Solana’s adoption has seen a manifold increase in the last year. This is the third time Solana’s network suffered an attack Yesterday’s incident came less than a month after a similar slowdown. At the time, the Solana Foundation <a href="https://solana.com/news/9-14-network-outage-initial-overview">attributed</a> the slowdown to an Initial DEX offering (IDO) from Radium, a Solana-based decentralized exchange. The platform had also suffered a 17-hour outage in September this year, leading the price of its cryptocurrency to fall from $220 to $140 in less than 24 hours. “Solana Mainnet Beta encountered a large increase in transaction load which peaked at 400,000 TPS. These transactions flooded the transaction processing queue, and lack of prioritization of network-critical messaging caused the network to start forking,” the Solana Status Twitter account <a href="https://twitter.com/SolanaStatus/status/1437856638279487493?s=20">tweeted</a> at the time. Slowdowns in blockchain platforms isn’t particularly new though, and Solana isn’t the only platform that suffers from these either. However, the fact that such slowdowns have happened multiple times in less than six months could bother many decentralized app (Dapp) makers who may have otherwise considered Solana as the medium for their products and services. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrong-has-bought-a-133-million-mansion-in-bel-air-a-report-says/articleshow/88690627.cms">Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has bought a $133 million mansion in Bel Air, a report says</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/the-sec-hires-a-senior-advisor-for-cryptocurrency-policy-after-a-blockbuster-year-for-digital-assets/articleshow/88694204.cms">The SEC hires a senior advisor for cryptocurrency policy after a blockbuster year for digital assets</a>

Solana’s network goes down for the third time in less than six months

<ul><li><keyword id="14627643" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="blockchain-solana" source="Orion">Blockchain Solana</keyword> was hacked, compromising 8000 crypto wallets and wiping out millions. </li><li><keyword id="1905050" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="solana" source="Orion">Solana</keyword> supports builders around the world creating crypto apps. </li><li>The attack has affected "hot" wallets which are always connected to the internet. </li></ul> In yet another major cryptocurrency hack, the popular blockchain Solana on Wednesday reported that an unknown bad actor has drained funds from 7,767 wallets on the <keyword id="14627645" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="solana-network" source="Orion">Solana Network</keyword>. However, Blockchain security firm SlowMist claimed more than 8,000 wallets had been drained worth around $8 million. Solana is a high-performance Blockchain supporting builders around the world creating crypto apps that scale today. The attack has affected "hot" wallets which are always connected to the internet, allowing people to store and send tokens easily. "Engineers from multiple ecosystems, with the help of several security firms, are investigating drained wallets on Solana. There is no evidence hardware wallets are impacted," said Solana. The exploit has affected several wallets, including <keyword id="4153837" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="slope" source="Orion">Slope</keyword> and <keyword id="46483" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="phantom" source="Orion">Phantom</keyword>. This appears to have affected both mobile and extension. "There's no evidence hardware wallets have been impacted -- and users are strongly encouraged to use hardware wallets. Do not reuse your seed phrase on a hardware wallet - create a new seed phrase," Solana informed. "Wallets drained should be treated as compromised, and abandoned," it added. The attack also compromised other wallets including Phantom, Slope, Solflare, and <keyword id="14627644" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="trustwallet" source="Orion">TrustWallet</keyword>. Phantom, a Solana-based wallet that hit $1.2 billion in valuation earlier this year, said it's "working closely with other teams to get to the bottom of a reported vulnerability in the Solana ecosystem." "At this time, the team does not believe this is a Phantom-specific issue," the wallet developer said. This could be a "supply chain attack" that manages to steal users' private keys. The attack on Solana came as cryptocurrency service <keyword id="799630" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="nomad" source="Orion">Nomad</keyword> suffered a "chaotic" attack, with hackers draining almost $200 million in digital funds from the company within a few hours. Inputs from IANS

Solana Hack: 8000 crypto wallets compromised, millions wiped out

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Hackers stole almost $700 million in 72 attacks in the first quarter of 2022, Atlas VPN said.</li><li>Attacks on the <keyword id="11931714" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="solana" source="Orion">solana</keyword> and <keyword id="13062973" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="binance-smart-chain" source="Orion">Binance Smart Chain</keyword> ecosystems accounted for over half of these losses.</li></ul><keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">Crypto</keyword> <keyword id="11902216" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="blockchain" source="Orion">blockchain</keyword> hackers stole almost $700 million in 2022, and attacks on the solana and Binance smart chain ecosystems accounted for well over half of that total, according to a report on Tuesday from <a href="https://atlasvpn.com/blog/blockchain-hackers-stole-nearly-700-million-in-q1-2022">Atlas VPN said</a>.<keyword id="12048079" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cybercriminals" source="Orion">Cybercriminals</keyword> stole $682 million from 72 attacks in the first three months of the year, the report said. Hacks of the solana and BSC networks led to almost $500 million in stolen funds, with $400 million stolen from solana and $100 million from Binance smart chain, according to Atlas VPN's data, which was based on figures from <a href="https://atlasvpn.com/blog/blockchain-hackers-stole-nearly-700-million-in-q1-2022">Hacked Slowmist.</a><keyword id="11901075" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nfts" source="Orion">NFTs</keyword> were the top target, with the highest number of hacks at 20, netting a near-$49 million loss. Some attackers used phishing attacks on Discord to steal victims' NFTs, the report said."With the rise of new crypto ecosystems, cybercriminals get more targets they can exploit. In addition, the surging NFT trend attracted even more scammers to the industry," Atlas VPN said.Monetary losses were calculated based on the conversion rate of a particular cryptocurrency when the attack took place.The BSC ecosystem had 12 hacks while the solana ecosystem was hacked 4 times. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-market-facebook-earnings-metaverse-blockchain-ethereum-bitcoin-solana-hack-2022-2">Wormhole</a>, a communication bridge between solana and other decentralized finance (DeFi) networks, was the target of the biggest <keyword id="11907745" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="hack" source="Orion">hack</keyword> in February of this year."An attacker exploited a signature verification vulnerability in the network to mint 120K Wormhole-wrapped ether on solana, worth about $334 million," Atlas VPN said.The ethereum ecosystem experienced 16 hack attacks in 2022 and lost nearly $25 million. It experienced the same number of hackings in the first quarter of last year, making it the top target for hackers.Exchanges were hacked three times, losing $42 million. Other types of hacks on blockchain caused $52 million in losses in 9 instances.Most blockchain-related hacks occur when cybercriminals exploit flaws in the project code. Successful hack can cause massive losses to creators and investors on crypto platforms.Blockchain-related hacks have reached a record-high in the first quarter of 2022, showing an 118% increase compared with the same quarter last year, the data showed."The growing market of cryptocurrencies entices not only legit people interested in the technology, but also cybercriminals who want to exploit it," Atlas VPN said.Hackers stole with more than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/biggest-crypto-hacks-of-2021-over-4-billion-stolen/slidelist/88560280.cms">$4 billion worth</a> of cryptocurrencies in 2021, according to a report by Crystal Blockchain, almost triple the amount stolen in 2020.And last week, a crypto hacker pulled off one of the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-hack-ronin-network-heist-cybercrime-cryptocurrency-axie-infinity-polynetwork-2022-3">largest heists in history</a>, stealing $625 million worth of ether and stablecoin USDC after targeting Axie Infinity's Ronin Network.

Crypto blockchain hackers have stolen almost $700 million in just 3 months this year, with solana and Binance smart chain hit hard

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Cryptocurrencies fell along with tech and social media stocks Thursday as US after Facebook's shock earnings.</li><li>Facebook parent Meta's shares lost 20% in premarket trading, hitting other risk assets.</li></ul>Cryptocurrencies were down across the board on Thursday, as investors shunned technology, social media and metaverse-linked stocks after Facebook parent company Meta delivered weak fourth-quarter earnings and guidance that sent its <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/facebook-stock-price-meta-q4-earnings-mark-zuckerberg-tiktok-revenue-2022-2">shares plunging</a> after hours.Meta <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-metaverse-business-completely-misses-wall-street-expectations-reality-labs-2022-2?r=US&amp;IR=T">reported</a> a loss in users for the first time in its history. To boot, its metaverse business racked up a $10 billion loss in the fourth-quarter of 2021, versus expectations for a profit of $3 billion.Risk aversion and concern over the impact of rising interest rates and higher inflation has kept the entire cryptocurrency complex on a weak footing since the start of the year. While Meta didn't break down expenses by segements, CFO David Wehner gave some more colour to the figures by explaning how hiring and a accelerated headcount in 2022 will be the biggest contributor to expensve growth, with the metaverse being one of these areas."You know, we're expecting accelerated headcount growth in 2022 to be the biggest contributor of expense growth, and that's largely in tech and product roles to support the seven product priorities that Mark laid out: Reels, community messaging, commerce, ads, privacy, AI, and the metaverse."Metaverse-linked tokens, which were huge beneficiaries of Meta's pivot to the digital world late last year, took a hit on Thursday. Decentraland's native token, mana, was down 5.39% while rival metaverse platform The Sandbox saw its said token drop 10.60% over a 24-hour period.The two have lost well over a fifth in value since the start of 2022, a far cry from the 300% gain both made in November, in the wake of Meta's announcement.Elsewhere in the cryptocurrency market, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/sol-sol">solana</a> fell back below $100 on Thursday after clawing back above this point earlier in the week. It was down 13.6% at $95, following a hack on a related network on Wednesday.The Wormhole project <a href="https://twitter.com/wormholecrypto/status/1488976115750383626">tweeted</a> on Wednesday that its site was down for maintenance while it looked into "a potential exploit." Wormhole is a bridge between the <keyword id="11892696" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ethereum" source="Orion">ethereum</keyword> and <keyword id="11931714" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="solana" source="Orion">solana</keyword> networks. Cybersecurity analyst <a href="https://twitter.com/CertiKCommunity/status/1488985314404319240?s=20&amp;t=_nLS7cwz108hZJm0JdNSAQ">CertiK</a> reported a hack had resulted in the loss of 80,000 ether, worth around $210 million at the current price, and around $50 million in solana. "A cross chain bridge between ethereum and solana, called Wormhole Bridge, was exploited yesterday by an attacker, resulting in the loss of 120,000wETH tokens (equalling around $320 million)," Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at GlobalBlock, said. "This is the second largest DeFi hack to date. The bridge allows users to send and receive <keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">crypto</keyword> between various blockchains like ethereum, solana," he added.Last week, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-crime-blockchain-money-laundering-bitcoin-ethereum-defi-chainalysis-2022-1">Chainalysis reported</a> that DeFi platforms accounted for $900 million of the total money laundered in 2021, a 1,964$ year-over-year increase."Solana's cheap transaction costs reportedly encourage bots to spam servers and crowd out users who need to re- margin underwater positions. Fresh fixes are pledged, but this is not the first time. Basically, it illustrates the current trade-offs between cost or speed and security, as well as the price of prioritising rapid ecosystem development," UBS strategists led by James Malcolm said.<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/btc-usd">Bitcoin</a> meanwhile was last down 4.6% in the last 24 to around $36,742, while <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/eth-usd">ether</a> was down 5.3% at around $2,621, according to CoinMarketCap.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-crash-outlook-strategy-sports-investing-betting-fanduel-bullpen-vc-2022-1?r=US&amp;IR=T" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Crypto needs 'to come crashing back to Earth' : An early FanDuel investor explains why even the huge splurge on sports isn't enough to draw him into 'the hype' — and shares 2 picks for defying a challenging growth environment</a>

Cryptocurrencies take a beating along with tech stocks, as Facebook earnings hit metaverse tokens and a blockchain hack hits solana and other DeFi coins

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="12012796" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="opensea" source="Orion">OpenSea</keyword> has confirmed an estimated $1.7 million worth of NFTs were stolen in a hack on Saturday.</li><li>The phishing attack exploited the smart-contract code used in NFTs, the platform believes.</li></ul>Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea has confirmed an estimated $1.7 million worth of tokens were stolen in a hack at the weekend. In the attack, which took place between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, the thieves tricked OpenSea users into part-signing smart contracts to allow the trades. They then completed the contract process to transfer the NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, to their own address.The hackers likely used "phishing" — in which an official communication is faked to look like the real thing — to fool NFT owners into signing, OpenSea believes."As far as we can tell, this is a phishing attack. We don't believe it's connected to the OpenSea website. It appears 32 users thus far have signed a malicious payload from an attacker, and some of their NFTs were stolen," OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer said in a series of <a href="https://twitter.com/dfinzer/status/1495245308812402688">tweets</a>.In <a href="https://twitter.com/opensea/status/1495625768713469954">later tweets</a>, Finzer dispelled suggestions that the NFT haul was worth as much as $200 million, and clarified that the number of victims had been narrowed down to 17 individuals."The attacker has $1.7 million of ETH in his wallet from selling some of the stolen NFTs," he said.The <keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">crypto</keyword> loss is small compared with recent high-profile hacks, such as solana's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/hackers-stole-322-million-in-2022s-largest-defi-hack-so-far-10-million-is-being-offered-for-its-return/articleshow/89324200.cms">$322 million</a> wormhole bridge attack, which also used a flaw in smart contracts. But it is a sign that such crime is becoming more common, as suggested by a recent <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-crimes-2021-defi-scam-stolen-funds-rug-pull-chainalysis-2022-1?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">Chainalysis report</a> that found criminals nabbed crypto worth $14 billion in 2021, a rise of 80%.Persistent security issues could become a barrier to mainstream adoption of crypto, given a burden is being passed on to the user, some analysts have warned.The risk of smart contract-based attacks in decentralized finance, especially in developing networks like solana, are quite high, according to Hart Lambur, cofounder of the UMA protocol."Smart contract bugs are unfortunately a common risk in DeFi," Lambur told Insider recently.The OpenSea hack exploited the <a href="https://twitter.com/Nesotual/status/1495223117450551300?s=20&amp;t=J8kqfpXP56ppqHJ1ax1VyQ">Wyvern Protocol</a>, which underpins most NFT smart contract processes. As the protocol is open source, the code is standard and publicly available.There are three ways to authorize an order, according an explainer on the Wyvern Protocol website."Orders must always be authorized by the maker address, who owns the proxy contract which will perform the call. Authorization can be done in three ways: by signed message, by pre-approval, and by match-time approval."The OpenSea victims signed a partial contract for the NFT trade, giving the attacker a general authorization but leaving it largely blank — something like signing a blank check. That let the hackers transfer ownership of the NFTs without making any payment.At least 254 NFTs were taken, <a href="https://twitter.com/PeckShieldAlert/status/1495281343927767040">according to crypto analysis company PeckShield</a>, though the company has not confirmed the tally.After talking to those affected, OpenSea decided a new Wyvern 2.3 contract was not used in the phishing attack, its CEO said. <a href="https://twitter.com/dfinzer/status/1495302784689704966">Finzer said</a> it had also ruled out phishing via clicking on the OpenSea site's banner; clicking on a faked OpenSea email; or using the platform's listing migration tool. Minting, buying, selling or listing NFTs was not at fault either, he said.The NFT platform is investigating whether the victims had interacted with a list of common websites, he added. OpenSea did not respond to an Insider request for comment.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-prediction-ai-platform-founder-btc-eth-2022-2?r=US&amp;IR=T" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A former hedge-fund trader's AI platform predicts bitcoin returns will crush ethereum by 33% over the next 3 months. He explains how users of the service are beating the average stock-market investor by 18%</a>.

OpenSea confirms hackers made $1.7 million on NFTs stolen in a phishing attack at the weekend

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A network of websites is tricking customers into buying jewelry they think is an amazing deal.</li><li>The scam is powered by videos purporting to give buyers a secret discount code in an act of revenge.</li></ul>"Storytime," a young woman announced to the camera, like thousands of TikTokers do every day. "How I got fired, and how I'm gonna get revenge."She described being unceremoniously sacked by a jewelry brand called Trugala after her boss caught her shopping on company time."So go crazy guys," she said. "I did not deserve this."Her payback would be sharing a discount code to slash the cost of Trugala's premium jewelry to $0, with only shipping to pay.The code was real, but her story was a lie. An Insider investigation found that she was one of many pulled into a vast scam that went viral after customers realized they had been fooled.<h2>Face of a scam</h2>The woman in the video — Stacey Wilson — told Insider she was hired on the freelance platform Upwork and got $30 to make the video.She never worked for Trugala, was never fired, and had never bought anything from the site or even seen the products.But people believed her story — and bought Trugala's jewelry using her code.When the products arrived, they looked nothing like what was on the site. Instead of premium pieces, they got plasticky, costume jewelry worth next to nothing.As buyers realized they had been scammed, they turned on both Trugala and Wilson, its unwitting public face."It was really, really bad," Wilson told Insider of the backlash that followed. "It took me into this dark hole. It really put a toll on my mental health."<div type="image" title="Trugala" height="709" width="1418" msid="101486738" hostid="261"></div>Wilson thought her video would go out on Trugala's brand pages, marked as an ad.Instead, the video — and a second she recorded for $45 — were posted on TikTok hundreds of times via burner accounts.Some gave away her real name, like Stacywilson889, or tweaked it a little, like Stacywashington889, Stacerebe, and Stacybrown883. There was also stacybabeyy, queenofnyc899, and citygirl3392, all with Wilson's face as a profile picture.<h2>'Please, take this all down'</h2>Wilson didn't realize this was happening until her friend sent her a TikTok where she was derided as a manipulative scammer."My face was everywhere. Everywhere. They made over a hundred pages of me," Wilson told Insider. "I just remember shaking and I was like, please, take this all down." Trugala is one of a handful of website stores that operate in the same way. They advertise rings, necklaces, and bracelets, most in excess of $100.Insider's reporting connected the operation to two businessmen on Long Island, New York, though while one admitted his involvement with similar jewelry companies, he denied setting up Trugala specifically, describing it as a "copycat."With a short code from the videos, like "MAD100," the price drops to zero. But everything comes with a shipping fee.Insider tested the method on five similar sites: Trugala, Sevatti, Deraldi, Vulosa, and Mazalti. All accepted a discount code from associated TikToks, and charged nothing but a shipping fee, which increased depending on how many items were in the basket.<div type="image" title="Discount codes that work on Deraldi, Trugala, and Vulosa." height="1000" width="2000" msid="101486742" hostid="261"></div>One customer was TikToker Myra Solana. She told Insider she saw a video at 3 a.m. and fell for it — thinking it was worth the risk to get seemingly hundreds of dollars' worth of jewelry for $16."I didn't look it up beforehand and thought, oh, I'm getting a great deal," Solana told Insider. "I'm always out to get a good deal, so I was like, heck yeah."Solana didn't get any receipt or confirmation of her order, which made her suspicious. Then she found slews of forum posts and videos calling it out as a scam. Solana immediately canceled her credit card out of fear her information would be stolen, and then made a post of her own warning other people.<div type="image" title="Trugala website items" height="1500" width="2000" msid="101486745" hostid="261"></div>Insider identified over a dozen creators who used variations on the same scripts to point customers to the sites. Comments underneath the posts vouching for the codes appear to be part of the same fake ecosystem."They are trying so hard to be authentic," Solana said. "But if you look hard enough, you can definitely tell that it's a fake page grasping for real people's attention for this elaborate scam."<h2>An army of fakes</h2>Solana's jewelry took about a month to show up, she said, but was "definitely not a hundred dollar's worth."Instead it was "something that you would get at Party City," she said. Insider found items matching what Solana was sent on discount sites like Ali Express.On TikTok, dozens of other creators shared similar tales. Wilson was horrified when she figured out what was going on. She Googled the name of the person that hired her, "Antonio Monty," and nothing came up."I'm like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, how did I get into this?" she said. "Like, I'm a college graduate, I do my research about everything. Like, how did this happen?"Wilson sent Insider transcripts of her conversations. Halfway through their interactions, Monty's display name changed without explanation to Gregory Ratner.Wilson asked for the videos to be pulled in messages sent from mid-April to mid-May. Monty at first defended the approach as a "business strategy" and "the most authentic" way to use the footage.He said it "would be a scam if no jewelry was sent at all," seeming to think the sales were legitimate as long as customers received a product, however poor.Monty agreed in the chat to stop uploading the videos — but Wilson found more. Some deleted accounts came back, she said. She told Monty she was suffering bad anxiety."I dont like the attacks I'm getting in the comments," she wrote to him, "please this is affecting me mentally please take it down.""I didn't intend for this to affect you mentally and I feel terrible that it did," Monty said, though he later seemed annoyed and passed on the blame."For the fourth time I'm not home till Thursday," he said once, saying his "team" was at fault rather than him."Someone else is covering for me the past three weeks," he said. "They must not have got the memo."Wilson told Insider she was considering legal action. She also informed TikTok, which removed most videos of her, though Insider could still find one as of June 8.<div type="image" title="Stacey and other creators Trugala Deraldi scam" height="1000" width="2000" msid="101486746" hostid="261"></div>Insider spoke with three other creators, all hired through Upwork for similar gigs.Ellison Scarborough said Sevatti hired her to make 10 videos a week in November 2022, and she was thrilled at the easy money. But when people left comments about it on her real TikTok account, where she has a fairly big following, she "freaked out.""I wish that I could obviously delete all the videos that were posted with my face," she told Insider. "Because each video that I post now that gets a lot of views, people could put two and two together for sure."<h2>$40, with a sting in the tail</h2>McKenzie Hedrick was another, who accepted $40 to record a video for Vuolsa in November 2022. The wording of the ad matched those for the other sites."We are looking for an actress that can create a TikTok style advertisement for our jewelry brand, using the scripts we provide," it said."This will start as a one-time project, but if the ad does well we will need multiple variations of the advertisement made. Compensation will be added on with additional videos that are made :)"On December 8, she messaged the person who hired her, complaining that she never agreed to her content being used on fake accounts impersonating her."We were not aware that our marketing team would do that either," the person responded. "We are handling this right now."Four months later, on April 25, Sevatti got in touch with her to see if she would be interested in a job — this time advertising a new brand called Deraldi."You guys scam people!" she responded. "Idk know how you're even allowed on this app still!!!!!" Another creator, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Insider that finding so many TikToks of her was "mortifying."She accepted $60 in May 2023 to make videos for Trugala and a brand called Mazalti."Hi Anthony! You used my videos to scam people," she wrote to the person who hired her. "I will not be working with you anymore and have reported your scheme to Upwork.""Wasn't used to scam anybody but ok..." the person replied. "It was an ad."Meanwhile, adverts for creators were live on Upwork until June 9. After being contacted by Insider, Upwork removed some of the postings, and terminated the accounts. However, Insider <a href="https://www.upwork.com/jobs/UGC-Video-Looking-for-Great-Creators_~01e01b818018c1081f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found another</a> posted within a few days, which is still live as of the time of publishing.A spokesperson for Upwork told Insider that "we do not condone the use of our site by anyone misrepresenting themselves or posting deceptive jobs or marketing" and that it suspends accounts associated with violations.<div type="image" title="An advert for a new UGC creator" height="687" width="1100" msid="101486749" hostid="261"></div>Catalina Goanta, an associate professor in private law and technology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, told Insider the sites had broken the law advertising their projects this way."This is absolutely illegal," she said. "There's absolutely no doubt about it that this is completely illegal because you're lying to your consumer."Goanta said most countries consider it an unfair practice to deceive customers by riding on the authenticity that social media platforms are supposed to bring."You're telling them, oh, you're getting this for free, but in fact, they're not getting this for free," she said. "They're getting this for more than the worth of what it is, which is like really absurdly bad jewelry."Not all of the sites had a clear paper trail, but Insider found company records filed with New York state authorities for two of the brands: Vulosa and Sevatti.<h2>Two guys on Long Island</h2>The sites are similar enough to suggest they are being run as a network. As well as sharing a marketing method, the sites have similar products, and tone of voice, draw on the same marketing and legal copy, and have similar html code.The Vulosa and Sevatti records linked to the addresses of two of the businesses listed under the names Blake Armentano and his father William Armentano, from Long Island.<a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/sevatti-llc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">On the business database Crunchbase</a>, Sevatti LLC is described as being founded by "Dominic and Blake," and has "provided their online audience with trendy neckwear, wristwear, and handwear to their clients since 2018.""Since the start of their company, they have seen wild success," it says. "They have shipped out over 100,000 pieces of jewelry worldwide and look forward to their own physical location in New York in 2024."A reporter who visited the addresses on Long Island on Insider's behalf did not find either man.At an address for Blake Armentano in the hamlet of Dix Hills, a woman answered the door at a spacious house in an upscale neighborhood.She declined to give her name, but said Armentano was living in another state and had not lived at the house for years. She agreed to pass on a message, but Insider did not hear back in time for publication.An attempt to find William Armentano at a listed business address was also unsuccessful.Blake Armentano responded to Insider via email, saying he "worked with" Vulosa, Sevatti, and Deraldi "for a brief time" but those sites were now no longer operational. He said he had nothing to do with Trugala or Mazalti, had never worked with Wilson, and described them as "copycat" sites. However, he also said it seemed the owners of Trugala were "people that I used to know, but have not had any contact with for a very long time." He did not provide further details.In regards to the items he sold, he said he was a "Zendrop customer," and the jewelry was "properly described on the store sites as zinc and alloys, not plastic.""Every company that sells a product typically operates on a model where the product is sold to a consumer at a price above the wholesale acquisition cost," he said.<h2>'Always remember — there is no free lunch'</h2>As of July 4, Sevatti's website had been taken down, but the other four remain live. Dozens of <a href="https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGJQWLBMp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok videos</a> of fake accounts pointing people to Deraldi are still up and were being made until as recently as May. Armentano declined to comment on anything related to "marketing tactics" stating: "It's not common for companies to disclose their marketing strategies."Goanta said it's difficult to track these kinds of schemes because they crop up "like mushrooms.""They're going to be online for a month, and then they're not going to be online," she said. "This is their business model. There's nothing about creating a legit brand and actually getting people to buy and invest in time in a marketing strategy. It's nothing like that."<div type="image" title="Trugala, Deralidi, Vulosa, and Mazalti's homepages" height="1000" width="2000" msid="101486750" hostid="261"></div>Scarborough, one of the creators who made videos for the sites, told Insider she does a lot more research on the companies she makes content for now. She is also skeptical about the message clients give her to read, rather than just following the script for an easy paycheck."I definitely feel like if anything feels too good to be true, then it is too good to be true," she said. "If you want to be a trustworthy person and hold to your own values and morals, you really need to know what you're talking about."Solana, the TikToker who was tricked, threw out her jewelry when she realized it was worthless. She said it opened her eyes to how platforms like TikTok have a new breed of scams which can trick even people who are wise to more traditional scams, like phishing emails."I would just want to advise people to think twice about the type of things that are going up on TikTok," she said. "And always remember that there is no free lunch. That's what my mom has always taught me."Nate Schweber contributed reporting for this article.

A viral TikTok jewelry scam is sucking in customers with 'revenge' videos by creators who say they too were tricked

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Kraken has agreed to end its "staking" program in the US and pay $30 million to settle a probe by the SEC.</li><li>The crypto exchange's service offered its customers returns if they put up their tokens for staking.</li></ul>Kraken has agreed to stop offering crypto "staking" services to US customers and pay $30 million as part of a settlement with regulators over charges it failed to register the yield-bearing program.That meant the major crypto exchange didn't have the proper protections in place for those investors while allowing them to stake their crypto, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> Thursday.The SEC move marked its first big crackdown on staking, drawing pushback from the crypto industry and concerns more enforcement could lie ahead."Whether it's through staking-as-a-service, lending, or other means, crypto intermediaries, when offering investment contracts in exchange for investors' tokens, need to provide the proper disclosures and safeguards required by our securities laws," SEC chair Gary Gensler said."Today's action should make clear to the marketplace that staking-as-a-service providers must register and provide full, fair, and truthful disclosure and investor protection," he added.Staking is when investors agree to lock in their holdings of a digital asset like <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/eth-usd">ethereum</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/cardano/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cardano</a> or <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/solana/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">solana</a> to be deployed on the blockchain, in exchange for a percentage-based reward. The SEC said Kraken offered returns of as much as 21%.Kraken will pay $30 million under the SEC settlement to cover civil penalties, pre judgement interest and disgorgement, which is the money the regulator says it made via the improper conduct.Crypto leaders reacted strongly to the markets watchdog's latest move, which could be another setback for the industry after several high-profile players imploded in a hellish 2022."The SEC continues its attack on U.S. crypto companies and retail investors, regulating by enforcement and undercutting the potential of public blockchain networks in the United States," Kristin Smith, Blockchain Association CEO, said in a statement."Today's settlement isn't law, but is another example of why we need Congress – not regulators – to determine appropriate legislation for this new technology."The SEC only has jurisdiction over US markets, so international Kraken customers will still be able to stake their crypto.The digital asset space is still reeling from the collapse of Kraken's old rival FTX, which filed for bankruptcy in November after suffering a liquidity crisis.Its founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the US the following month. The SEC charged him with <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-219" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defrauding investors out of at least $1.8 billion</a>.<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/btc-usd">Bitcoin</a> fell 3.7% in the past 24 hours to trade below $22,000 Friday, according to CoinMarketCap data, after the news of Kraken's settlement. Meanwhile, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/eth-usd">ethereum</a> dropped 5.2% to hover above $1,500.Editor's note: February 10, 2023 — Kraken will stop offering its staking program to US customers, not all customers as suggested by an earlier version of this story.Read more: <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrong-crypto-staking-sec-securities-regulation-investors2023-2">Coinbase CEO points to rumors that the SEC could ban this popular crypto income-generating technique for US retail investors</a>

Kraken will stop offering US crypto 'staking' and pay a $30 million penalty after settling with the SEC

Welcome to 10 Things Before the <keyword id="11907548" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="opening-bell" source="Orion">Opening Bell</keyword>. If this was forwarded to you, <a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/10-things-opening-bell">sign up here.</a> Plus, download Insider's app for news on the go - <a href="https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id554260576?pt=385758&amp;ct=06292021_newsletters&amp;mt=8amp;mt=8">click here for iOS</a> and<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freerange360.mpp.businessinsider"> here for Android</a>.Let's jump in.1. Dow futures have plunged 500 points as a looming default by Chinese property giant Evergrande rattles investors. The fear is that losses suffered by creditors who provided $350 billion in debt will spread damage into the financial system. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-today-evergrande-default-loan-payment-fed-meeting-oil-2021-9">See how markets are doing now</a>. 2. The White House is gearing up to combat crypto use in ransomware attacks. Per The Wall Street Journal, the US government is preparing a slew of actions to make it more difficult for hackers to use cryptocurrencies to profit from cyber attacks. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/cryptocurrency-ransomware-attacks-hackers-biden-administration-sanctions-cyber-crime-2021-9">Some sanctions could roll out as early as next week.</a>3. Sam Bankman-Fried spoke to us about the "absolutely huge opportunity" in crypto derivatives trading. The 29-year-old billionaire CEO of FTX explained why it's a win-win for regulators and the industry, and shared <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-derivatives-huge-opportunity-us-ftx-bankman-fried-ledgerx-nft-2021-9">three more trends he's watching</a>.4. Earnings on deck: Lennar Corp, Corporación Financiera Alba, and Karoon Gas Australia are all <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/earnings-calendar">reporting.</a> 5. Big companies like Shake Shack and Marriott are facing a labor shortage. Corporate leaders have noted hiring challenges as pandemic fears, stimulus checks and controversy over vaccines have ramped up. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/shake-shack-marriott-johnson-company-executives-bemoan-painful-labor-shortage-2021-9">Here's what executives are saying about the problem. </a>6. The meme-stock boom is like the dot-com bubble, says a Moody Analytics researcher. Lily Francus warned traders not to get greedy, and dismissed the idea that retail traders spearheaded the short squeezes earlier this year.<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/lily-francus-moodys-analytics-gamestop-amc-crypto-meme-stocks-bubble-2021-9"> Read the key takeaways from her recent, wide-ranging interview</a>.7. Ether should be 55% lower, a JPMorgan strategist says. Based on measures of network activity, Ether's fair value is around $1,500, far lower than its current price. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ether-price-outlook-eth-solana-cardano-jpmorgan-blockchain-lower-competition-2021-9">Here's why he thinks blockchains such as solana and cardano are becoming more competitive with ether. </a>8. Tesla could see a boost as chip-shortage woes subside. According to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, shares of the EV company could jump 32% in the next year as semiconductor supply increases and demand for EVs rises in the next year. Ives says<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tesla-stock-price-target-ives-wedbush-chip-shortage-china-deliveries-2021-9"> Tesla is set to benefit from the coming "green tidal wave."</a>9. Meet eight strategists calling for a stock-market correction by the end of 2021. The mood is turning bearish on Wall Street as the S&amp;P 500 extends an impressive streak without a big drop. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-correction-crash-wall-street-bearish-equities-investing-recommendations-2021-9">Read the experts' calls and their trading recommendations for a sell-off</a>. 10. Goldman Sachs is singling out stocks that are beating the market because of their histories of steady growth. These names are popular with investors due to worries about the economy and higher taxes. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-picks-to-buy-market-leaders-quality-growth-goldman-sachs-2021-9">See 17 picks on the list</a>. Compiled by Phil Rosen. Feedback? Email <a href="mailto:prosen@insider.com">prosen@insider.com</a> or tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/philrosenn">@philrosenn</a>.Sign up for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter">more Insider newsletters here</a>.

You Searched For "solana network attack" and got 8 results

Solana’s network goes down for the third time in less than six months

BI India Bureau

Solana Hack: 8000 crypto wallets compromised, millions wiped out

Eetika Kapoor

Crypto blockchain hackers have stolen almost $700 million in just 3 months this year, with solana and Binance smart chain hit hard

Hamza Fareed Malik

Cryptocurrencies take a beating along with tech stocks, as Facebook earnings hit metaverse tokens and a blockchain hack hits solana and other DeFi coins

Adam Morgan McCarthy

OpenSea confirms hackers made $1.7 million on NFTs stolen in a phishing attack at the weekend

Adam Morgan McCarthy

A viral TikTok jewelry scam is sucking in customers with 'revenge' videos by creators who say they too were tricked

Lindsay Dodgson

Kraken will stop offering US crypto 'staking' and pay a $30 million penalty after settling with the SEC

George Glover

10 things before the opening bell

Phil Rosen

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