Asterix Scam Targets Crypto Users with Phishing Campaign

A recent operation called Operation ASTERIX has been uncovered by researchers at Rapid7. This campaign targeted cryptocurrency users for potential fraud, processing an impressive 885,000 phone numbers in its effort to find and scam digital asset holders.

The attackers used a combination of tactics including account checks, phishing emails, voice calls, fake wallet apps, and Telegram-based data theft. The exposed server directory gave researchers a detailed look at the operation's inner workings, containing raw phone-number lists, account-checking tools, phishing panels, lead databases, dialer scripts, and code to send stolen wallet recovery phrases to Telegram bots.

The attackers did not simply call random numbers but used bulk validation tools to determine if a phone number was connected to a cryptocurrency account. This allowed them to focus their efforts on people more likely to own digital assets.