Cybersecurity firm unveils crypto phishing campaign targeting 885,000 phone numbers
Rapid7 uncovered Operation Asterix, a crypto phishing campaign that targeted about 885,000 phone numbers across multiple countries to steal investors’ assets. Recovered logs showed 5,576 Binance-linked accounts queued for attack, plus fake Crypto.com impersonation emails. The largest dataset contained 316,002 German mobile numbers; other lists covered Hong Kong, Bulgaria, the UK, the US, Canada, and Ledger-related contacts. Attackers used fake apps mimicking Ledger, Trezor, and Exodus, along with bogus support emails and phone calls, to steal seed phrases. Rapid7 found 43,066 matched crypto accounts from the German dataset, a hit rate of about 13.6%, and also identified a Kraken phone-number checker. The campaign reportedly used AI tools heavily. Phishing and social engineering remain major drivers of crypto losses.
