Fake Claude trading bot tutorial on YouTube steals $517K in ETH from crypto holders

Crypto holders lost a total of 274.6 ETH, worth about $517,000, to a fake YouTube tutorial promising to build an AI-powered cryptocurrency arbitrage bot, CryptoSlate reported, citing a TRM Labs report. The tutorial appeared to show users how to create an AI trading bot using Anthropic’s AI model Claude, but instead guided them into deploying a malicious smart contract and transferring funds themselves. TRM Labs said at least 224 people are believed to have been affected. TRM Labs said a key feature of the scam was that victims approved every transaction themselves. Because users deployed the smart contract and sent the funds on their own, it was harder for existing security systems to detect the malicious activity.