How Deceptive MEV Bots Victimize Crypto Traders

A new wave of scams in the crypto world is particularly targeting aspiring traders who seek out MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) strategies. These scams often take the form of fraudulent tutorials that lead individuals to deploy malicious smart contracts, resulting in significant financial losses. This article explores the mechanics behind these deceptive practices and highlights the dangers for those looking to profit in the crypto space.

Key Takeaways

Fake MEV bots exploit traders by presenting seemingly legitimate tutorials that mask malicious contract codes.
Scammers have reportedly made over $900,000 by stealing funds through these fraudulent tactics.
Victims unwittingly trigger money-draining functions within these contracts by following simple instructions.
Traditional security measures are inadequate in identifying these types of scams.
Web3 Antivirus offers a solution by monitoring contracts and detecting suspicious behavior before assets are drained.

How fake MEV bots turn crypto traders into their own victims

The Rise of Tutorial-Driven Web3 Scams

In the ever-evolving landscape of Web3, scams have found a new way to ensnare unsuspecting traders, particularly those searching for MEV or arbitrage opportunities. MEV refers to the extra profits that traders can extract from a blockchain by controlling the order of transactions. New traders often encounter tutorials that promise easy automated profits, including code generated by tools like ChatGPT.

However, reality sets in when these tutorials lead to the deployment of malicious smart contracts that siphon funds from their wallets straight to hackers. Recent reports indicate that these scammers have successfully stolen over $900,000 in this manner.

These scams are part of a new form of educational fraud wherein the scam appears to provide lessons on building a scalper bot, but the true product is merely a trap. Victims implement a contract that looks like a trading tool, fund it with Ethereum (ETH), and inadvertently trigger a function that drains their accounts. Notably, attackers never directly access the wallet—victims unwittingly conduct all the necessary steps.

A brief comparison of legitimate and fake MEV bots

The Hidden Trap in MEV Bot Contracts

The true danger lies within the smart contract templates that are linked in these tutorials. Each tutorial shares a subtly different file intended to mislead. Non-technical users see a complex Solidity contract presented as open-source code, leading them to believe the creator has already done all the hard work. The code is often shared via platforms like Pastebin or Google Docs and is then compiled and deployed using commonly recognized tools such as Remix IDE or Etherscan.

Buried within this seemingly harmless code is a "garbage" string that encodes the attacker's wallet, disguised to not resemble a standard hexadecimal address. For example, a string like QG384C1A318cE21D85F34A8D2748311EA2F91c84f0 looks unusual; however, it encodes an Ethereum address.

Auxiliary functions manipulate this string to convert it into a conventional format that represents a 20-byte Ethereum address. Functions named "executeTrades" or "stringReplace" copy the string and assemble the final destination.

We've recently spotted a new fake MEV bot scam where scammers post YouTube guides instructing users to deploy a "profitable bot" and deposit ETH. In a particular instance, a victim sent 1 ETH and then witnessed staged profit activities, with small ETH inflows channeled to the contract from attackers.

How Fake Profit Demonstrations Seal the Deal

Once hooked by a professionally recorded video demonstration, the hacker guides the victim through every step in real time. They display how the balance on the contract appears to increase prior to any withdrawals.

The demonstration typically follows these four steps:

The victim deploys the malicious contract and funds it (e.g., 1 ETH), believing it’s a profitable trading bot.
The scammer transfers a small amount of ETH (e.g., 0.1 ETH) from a different wallet to the contract, creating a false sense of profitability.
The victim observes a rise in the contract balance from 1 ETH to 1.1 ETH. This perceived gain convinces them to invest more.
When the victim attempts to withdraw funds or calls a function, the contract activates a drain function that transfers all funds (including the victim's original deposit and the scammer's bait) to the scammer's wallet.

The trap tightens when victims interact with the contract's functions. Labels like Start, Stop, and Withdraw mimic bot controls, but the scam can route the fund drain through various paths. Some contracts will transfer money as soon as “Start” is activated, while others wait until “Stop” or “Withdraw” is triggered after a period of showcasing profits. Attackers can even monitor contracts and prompt a separate drain function if funds remain inactive.

Why Traditional Security Tools Miss It

Standard security measures struggle to catch fake MEV bots because the initial signals appear innocuous. Victims willingly deploy this contract code themselves, so transaction histories don’t reflect classic phishing indicators or malicious airdrops. Since the contract verifies correctly on Etherscan and deployment via tools like Remix or MetaMask mimics that of any legitimate decentralized application (DApp), the entire process resembles a standard open-source deployment.

Traditional anti-phishing filters and transaction scanners often concentrate on suspicious links or token approvals, but fake MEV bots obscure risk within their contract logic. To detect hidden patterns, run-time detection and address intelligence are necessary before execution.

How Web3 Antivirus Can Help

Web3 Antivirus uses behavioral analytics alongside code and address intelligence for its detection processes, which include:

Monitoring

Web3 Antivirus keeps an eye on newly deployed contracts on the network.

Detecting Suspicious Contracts

The lifecycle of each contract and its creator is monitored. A significant warning sign arises when a creator funds a contract and subsequently invokes a function draining the entire balance to an external address. This pattern prompts the system to flag the contract and its related addresses as potentially fraudulent.

Scam Confirmation

When more than two similar drain events occur with the same contract bytecode, Web3 Antivirus will classify that contract as a confirmed scam. The system will tag the contract, the affected victims, and the wallet that siphoned funds.

Updating the Database

Confirmed scam bytecode is added to the Web3 Antivirus database, which checks every new contract against this library. When a contract drains funds, the system compares the destination address with known scam clusters. This proactive prevention applies accumulated data to all new transactions and contracts.

A browser extension provides this intelligence effortlessly at the point of transaction. It intercepts exchanges, analyzes target contracts, and checks bytecode against recognized patterns. Operating silently in the background, it raises alerts before risky interactions take place, granting users protection without necessitating extensive security knowledge.

For instance, a user lost nearly 3 ETH (approximately $10,393) after following a fake MEV bot tutorial on YouTube. They deployed a malicious contract, funded it, and activated the 'start' function, believing it would yield profits.

Toward Predictive Protection in Web3

Fake MEV bots illustrate how rapidly adversaries adapt to emerging opportunities in the Web3 environment. Educational content has become a powerful attack vector. Contracts appear user-created, tools are familiar, and actions correspond to standard deployment steps.

Reactive security approaches are inadequate to combat these schemes. Protection must anticipate a contract’s purpose prior to any substantial asset transfers. Web3 Antivirus aims to address this gap with ongoing monitoring, bytecode intelligence, and real-time transaction analysis. As deceptive MEV bot schemes develop, behavior-driven security solutions provide essential safeguards for everyday participants in the crypto markets.