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Phishing victim sends eye-watering $4.5M in USDT to scammer

September 21, 2023No Comments

An Unwitting Cryptocurrency Holder Has Reportedly Been Victim of a Whopping $4.46 Million phishing scam.

According to data from Etherscan4.46 million dollars in Tether (USDT) was withdrawn from a Kraken crypto exchange wallet and eventually sent to an address ending in "ACa7."

Blockchain security company PeckShield has tagged the address as being owned by a phishing scammer.

Another blockchain scam platform, Scam Sniffer, suggested on September 20 that funds were sent to an address linked to a โ€œfake Coinone crypto mining exchange.โ€

Scam Tracker bound to a user-created Dune Analytics dashboard, suggesting that attacks of this nature have seen scammers steal approximately $337.1 million worth of USDT in total, affecting up to 21,953 people.

Tayvano's Dune Analytics Dashboard on USDT Approval Scams. Source: Dune analysis.

Related: Crypto whale loses $24 million in staked Ethereum due to phishing attack

The global anti-scam organization says this type of approval mining scam It usually tricks victims into authorizing unlimited withdrawals from their cryptocurrency wallet.

"When you create a self-custody crypto wallet [...] you get a 'private key' that is protected by encryption. However, scammers do not need your seed phrase,โ€ GASO said, explaining on its website that when a victim clicks to participate in the fake mining pool, they are clicking on a button that will request a network fee of between $10 and $50 in Ether. (ETH).

While it seems reasonable, GASO suggests that it is to mislead the user:

โ€œThis is simply a faรงade to obtain your digitally signed authorization, allowing unlimited access to your wallet via the USDT smart contract.โ€

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