Warning of scams following $6.3bn Binance hack

In what has been described as the largest single theft in history, a hack of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance saw $6.3 billion stolen on 29 October.

Reuters reports that a compromised laptop and malware was used to manipulate the system used to approve transactions so funds could be moved while avoiding the normal approval controls.

We spot scams like this every week in The Scam Hound newsletter — one email, every Tuesday, free. → subscribe

While Binance says it has covered 90% of the losses from the attack, that still leaves an estimated $600 million lost, with the FBI pointing the finger of responsibility at North Korea.

We at The Scam Hound are not finance-based - click here to see more about what cryptocurrency is and how it works - but there is a potential knock-on effect to the hack.

Binance themslves posted on X on the day of the attack to warn users to remain cautious of scams, and users of other crypto platforms have also been advised to stay vigilant.

Speaking to the BBC, Marijus Briedis, NordVPN's chief technology officer, says users should be wary of things like "an email claiming your funds are at risk", "a fake support account offering help" or "a message urging you to move your cryptocurrency to a 'safe' wallet" - essentially the crypto versions of cons like social media recovery scams, courier fraud, and gold investments.

"Check updates through the Binance app or a website address you already trust," says Briedis.

"Avoid links in unsolicited messages, and never give anyone your password, verification codes or wallet recovery phrase."

The concern about follow-up scams holds water - Fingerprint reports that after the theft of $1.5 billion from crypto exchange Bybit in February 2025 in what was the biggest crypto theft in history at that time, separate groups of scammers went after Bybit's customers pretending to be a recovery service or a help centre, with fake websites and imitation Bybit login pages set up to try and steal data and passwords.

Tomas Sinicki from identity theft and scam protection service Coveron told Yahoo Finance that crypto users should "[b]e skeptical of urgency, especially during market panic. Incidents like this are prime time for follow-up scams: fake 'exchange support' messages and phishing emails promising to help recover funds."

This article has been created for information purposes only and should not be considered financial advice.

We spot scams like this every week in The Scam Hound newsletter — one email, every Tuesday, free. → subscribe