A total of 274.6 ETH (worth $517,000) was lost due to a fake YouTube tutorial that promised to create an AI-based cryptocurrency arbitrage bot. CryptoSlate, citing a TRM Labs report, stated that while the tutorial appeared to be an educational video on how to build an AI trading bot using Anthropic's AI model Claude, it actually tricked users into directly deploying malicious smart contracts and transferring funds. At least 224 victims are estimated. TRM Labs explained, "A distinctive feature of this scam is that the victims directly approved all transactions. Since users themselves deployed the smart contracts and transferred funds, it was even more difficult for existing security systems to detect the malicious fraudulent activity."
