Between February 12 and August 11, 2026, scammers published nine YouTube tutorials featuring AI-generated hosts. The videos claimed to demonstrate an autonomous crypto arbitrage bot powered by Anthropic’s Claude AI, instructing viewers to deploy smart contracts on Ethereum.
TRM Labs reported that 224 victims lost a total of 274.6 ETH, valued at approximately $517,205. The median loss per victim was 1 ETH, matching the recommended deposit amount suggested in the fraudulent tutorials.
The attack bypassed traditional phishing methods by convincing users to deploy malicious smart contracts from their own wallets. The contract code contained hidden logic that routed funds to six operator addresses controlled by the attackers.
TRM Labs identified 234 malicious contracts deployed by victims. The stolen funds were laundered through decentralized finance protocols, cross-chain bridges, and mixers, with no centralized exchanges involved in the transaction flow.
