PANews, December 23, reported by Cointelegraph, states that under the guise of 'marketing, promotion, and customer acquisition', sensitive information lists of participants in cryptocurrency industry events are being sold illegally, becoming a treasure trove of data sought after by fraudsters and malicious actors. These lists detail participants' full names, phone numbers, nationalities, positions, companies, and personal and business social media links, often collected during the registration process for events at conferences or breakout sessions. Cointelegraph obtained 'sample' lists from a seller via Telegram, including four lists from different events, each containing about 60 to 100 participants, with various data points. The events mostly took place in the fall of 2024, with participants from several countries, including Southeast Asia and India. This indicates organized international data trading of blockchain event participants.
These lists are just the tip of the iceberg; the seller also shared other sample images related to Blockchain Fest and Devcon. Among them, a list reportedly containing the names of 1,700 attendees of the Malta AIBC conference in November 2024 is particularly noteworthy. The seller stated it would be 'provided to only a few' and the price dropped from nearly $4,000 to $650. The seller claims to use the proceeds from sales to purchase more lists and shared screenshots of the database. The identities of the seller and data compiler are anonymous but appear to be Russian, with one sample dataset labeled in Russian, and AI analysis also indicated the seller is a native Russian speaker. This information may fuel social engineering scams, threatening the security of participants' cryptocurrency wallet funds.