Binance Confirms SMS Attack Surge Targeting Ukrainian Users—Here’s Your Defense Playbook
Ukrainian crypto traders face a new threat vector—surging SMS phishing attacks targeting exchange credentials. Binance's security team confirms coordinated attempts to bypass 2FA protections through fabricated login alerts.
Defense Protocols Activated
Enable whitelisting for withdrawal addresses. Mandate anti-phishing codes for all official communications. Never share SMS verification codes—even with "support staff." Binance emphasizes: their team never initiates contact requesting sensitive data.
Infrastructure Under Siege
The attacks exploit telecom vulnerabilities rather than exchange infrastructure. Pattern analysis suggests state-adjacent actors testing attack resilience during market volatility. Classic distraction tactics—because nothing says "financial freedom" like fighting off coordinated cyber warfare while monitoring your portfolio.
Why it is dangerous
SMS spoofing is a technique where fraudsters send messages on behalf of someone else. The phone does not distinguish a real message from a fake one and combines everything into one branch. As a result, the user sees a fake SMS next to official messages — from a bank, mobile operator or online service — and believes it is genuine.
«Then everything goes according to the scenario: a call to the hotline, data entry, or money transfer», Binance says.
The whole scheme is based on psychology, the exchange team notes: create panic («your account is under attack»), add urgency («call immediately»), mix real and fake — and the user takes the necessary actions.
How it works
- Weak SMS gateways. Some providers allow you to change the sender’s ID.
- VoIP services. Internet telephony allows you to specify any sender’s name.
- Grey channels. Some bulk email providers cooperate with fraudsters and help embed fake messages in «trusted» channels.
True story: one of the exchange users received an SMS about «suspicious logins from different cities». The message appeared in the same thread as real messages from the exchange. In a panic, he called the specified number.
«Then the fraudsters played a subtle trick: they simultaneously initiated a real password reset request on Binance to confirm their ‘legend’. In the conversation, they offered to «protect the funds» and transfer them to a wallet to which they gave a seed phrase. In fact, it was their own wallet. If the victim had succumbed to the pressure, their money WOULD have ended up with the fraudsters», Binance said.
Screenshots: Binance.
How to protect yourself
Watch out for «red flags»:
- calls to act immediately: «call now» or «confirm your details urgently»;
- SMS with suspicious links that do not lead to the official website;
- messages without your unique security token (code or user ID).
Follow simple rules:
«Technology cannot protect against everything. Even the best technical filters won’t stop fraudsters if the user gives them access. Therefore, knowledge and caution become the main shield. In the Web3 world, every minute counts: it only takes one fake SMS to lose everything. Don’t let fraudsters play on your trust. Set your own security rules and stick to them», Binance concluded.
Сообщение Binance reports a wave of SMS attacks on users in Ukraine and gives tips on how to protect yourself появились сначала на INCRYPTED.
