Web3 Scams Are Evolving - So Is Security. That’s Why We’re Teaming Up With ChainPatrol

It always starts the same way.

A project launches, builds a community, gains traction… and then the fakes start popping up.

A lookalike website asking users to connect their wallets.

A fake Twitter account pretending to be the official team.

A scam link in Telegram promising an exclusive airdrop.

We’ve seen it happen over and over again.

At QuillAudits, we’ve spent years securing smart contracts, ensuring protocols aren’t drained by exploits, backdoors, or vulnerabilities.

But security doesn’t stop at the contract level anymore. While we’re patching vulnerabilities and stress-testing code, scammers are out there pulling off brand impersonation, phishing, and social engineering attacks.

This isn’t just a few bad actors slipping through the cracks. It’s an industry-wide problem that’s only getting worse.

Web3 has always been a battleground between builders and attackers.

While smart contract exploits and protocol vulnerabilities remain major concerns, there's another attack vector that’s growing even faster, one that doesn’t require breaking a single line of code.

Instead, it exploits the weakest link in security: human psychology.

Recent data paints a grim picture of the rising threat posed by social engineering attacks:

• In 2023, social engineering accounted for a significant portion of all cyber incidents, with scams making up 50% and phishing attacks 35.5% of reported cases.
• By 2024, the situation worsened. The value lost to on-chain security incidents surged by 31.61% year-over-year, with many of these exploits originating from social engineering tactics.
• 2025 is already shaping up to be even worse. The rise of deepfake technology, AI-generated phishing scams, and increasingly sophisticated impersonation attacks is allowing cybercriminals to carry out large-scale social engineering campaigns with alarming efficiency.

The implications are clear: as Web3 adoption grows, attackers are moving away from purely technical exploits and leaning into psychological manipulation.

Unlike traditional exploits that target vulnerabilities in smart contracts or protocols, social engineering attacks rely on deception, persuasion, and psychological manipulation.

Attackers employ a variety of tactics, including:

> Phishing Emails & Fake Websites – Victims are tricked into entering their private keys or seed phrases into convincing but malicious replicas of legitimate platforms.

Hijacked Twitter (X) and Discord Accounts – Official project accounts get compromised and start promoting fake airdrops or investment opportunities.

Impersonation of Founders & Team Members – Attackers pose as project founders, developers, or community managers to trick users or even internal team members into sharing sensitive data.

Fake Token Sales & Rug Pulls – Scammers fabricate entire projects, complete with marketing campaigns and influencer endorsements, only to disappear with investors’ funds.

Inside Jobs & Deceptive Hiring – A growing trend involves malicious actors infiltrating Web3 organizations by getting hired as employees or developers, only to exploit internal access later.

In early 2024, a rogue developer embedded a backdoor into the Web3 gaming platform Munchables, leading to a $62.5 million loss.

The attacker had been part of the development team, proving that even hiring decisions can be exploited as an attack vector.

While traditional finance platforms have decades of experience countering fraud and identity theft, Web3 remains a relatively young and fast-moving industry.

Several factors make it particularly susceptible to social engineering attacks:

1. Decentralization & Anonymity – The same features that make Web3 appealing—permissionless access, self-custody, and anonymity—also make it difficult to verify identities or reverse fraudulent transactions.
2. Reliance on Social Media for Communication – Most Web3 projects use Twitter (X), Discord, and Telegram as their primary communication channels, which are frequent targets for impersonation and hijacking.
3. Rapid Innovation & Hype Cycles – New projects and token launches generate FOMO (fear of missing out), making users more likely to fall for urgent-sounding scams.
4. Lack of Regulation & Recourse – Unlike traditional banking, where fraud victims may have legal protections or insurance, Web3 transactions are often irreversible once an asset is transferred.

QuillAudits has always believed in a multi-layered security approach. We audit smart contracts, analyze token risks, and monitor blockchain activity in real time. But Web3 security isn’t just about code anymore, it’s about protecting users from every possible attack vector.

That’s where ChainPatrol comes in.

ChainPatrol specializes in brand protection and scam detection, actively monitoring the Web3 space for phishing attempts, impersonations, and social engineering scams. While we ensure that smart contracts are airtight, they’re taking down threats before they can cause damage.

Here’s how:

AI-Powered Threat Detection: Their advanced LLMs, image recognition, and custom-built models spot brand impersonation and malicious actors instantly.

Continuous Scanning: Monitoring millions of domains and deep-crawling social media to detect threats the moment they appear.

Account Monitoring: Keeping an eye on official social accounts for signs of takeover or unauthorized access.

Last-Mile Investigation: A hands-on security team engaging directly with threats to extract attack signatures and shut them down.

This partnership means that security isn’t just about protecting what’s on-chain, it’s about safeguarding an entire ecosystem, from brand reputation to community trust.

The days of thinking that a single security layer is enough are long gone. A smart contract audit is essential—but it’s not enough.

Web3 projects now need:

✅ Secure smart contracts (so their protocols don’t get drained).

✅ Real-time threat monitoring (so phishing scams don’t fool their users).

✅ Brand protection (so attackers can’t impersonate them and steal funds).

That’s what we’re building together.

ChainPatrol is a real-time Web3 security platform that detects, blocks, and takes down online threats to protect Web3 organizations and communities. Through a mix of automation and human expertise, ChainPatrol offers comprehensive coverage, including Discord, Slack, and Telegram bots, AI-powered threat detection, and support for over 20 crypto wallets.

QuillAudits is a blockchain security firm focused on AI-driven smart contract audits, token risk assessments, and real-time monitoring. With over a million lines of code audited across 1,000+ projects and $30B in assets secured, QuillAudits is trusted by leading Web3 companies to fortify their security infrastructure.