Meta is reportedly reconsidering its heavy investment in the metaverse, with plans to cut the budget for its Reality Labs division by as much as 30%. The news was met with enthusiasm from investors, who drove the company’s stock price up significantly.

According to reports from Bloomberg and The New York Times on Thursday, the social media giant is looking to scale back spending on its virtual reality unit, which has been the primary focus of its metaverse efforts. While no final decision has been made, the proposed cuts could involve layoffs and a strategic shift of resources. The funds would be redirected toward other projects within Reality Labs, particularly the development of augmented reality glasses and artificial intelligence.

Wall Street reacted positively to the potential change in direction. Upon the market opening, shares in Meta (META) jumped over 5% before closing the day with a 3.4% gain, settling around the $661 mark. The market’s response suggests that shareholders support a more focused approach and a reduction in the massive spending that has defined the company’s metaverse ambitions.

A new breed of sophisticated scams is exploiting the ambitions of cryptocurrency traders by using fake social media tutorials. These guides promise to help users build profit-generating bots but instead trick them into deploying malicious smart contracts that drain their wallets.

The scam targets individuals looking for an edge through Maximal Extractable Value (MEV)—the additional profit that can be gained by influencing the order of transactions within a blockchain block. Scammers create high-quality video tutorials that walk users through the process of creating what appears to be an automated trading or arbitrage bot, sometimes even using code presented as being written by ChatGPT.

In reality, the self-executing contract contains hidden functions designed to steal funds. Once the victim deploys the contract and funds it with cryptocurrency like ETH to begin trading, they unknowingly trigger a function that transfers the entire balance to the attacker’s wallet. This method is particularly deceptive because the victim performs every technical step, meaning the scammer never needs direct access to their wallet. Recent analysis indicates this scheme has already netted attackers more than $900,000.

The Rise of Tutorial-Driven Scams

These fraudulent tutorials are widespread across major social platforms where users actively seek educational content on Web3 topics. The production quality is often high, featuring on-camera presenters and screen-sharing walkthroughs that mimic legitimate development guides, making them difficult to distinguish from authentic content.

The Hidden Trap of Social Proof

To enhance their credibility, scammers create an illusion of authenticity through social proof. The comment sections of these tutorials are frequently filled with praise from fake accounts designed to look like real bloggers. These accounts often have established-looking follower counts, further reinforcing the scam and luring in more unsuspecting traders.