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According to data from Etherscan4.46 million dollars in Tether (USDT) was withdrawn from a Kraken crypto exchange wallet and eventually sent to an address ending in "ACa7."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.
#PeckShieldAlert The address 0x2175...f7D9 was scammed for 4.46 million $USDT
Victim address: 0x2175c0082d052872501f7fe54e1aC59858aaf7D9
Scammer's address: 0xAbb07822F471773Ff00b9444308ceEB7cf0dACa7 pic.twitter.com/Ny9CIrkBxw- PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) September 21, 2023
Another blockchain scam platform, Scam Sniffer, suggested on September 20 that funds were sent to an address linked to a โfake Coinone crypto mining exchange.โ
someone withdrew $4.46 million from Kraken to a fake crypto mining exchange Coinone about 1 hour ago.https://t.co/ued55jlWdM pic.twitter.com/tsV5BGDY0O
โ Scam Tracker (@realScamSniffer) September 20, 2023
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.
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:
โThis 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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