An unsuspecting cryptocurrency holder reportedly fell victim to a $4.46 million phishing scam.
According to data from Etherscan, $4.46 million in Tether (USDT) was withdrawn from the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange wallet and ultimately sent to an address ending in “ACa7.”
Blockchain security company PeckShield has flagged the address as being owned by a phishing scammer.
#PeckShieldAlert Address 0x2175…f7D9 was defrauded of 4.46M USDT
Victim address: 0x2175c0082d052872501f7fe54e1aC59858aaf7D9
Scammer address: 0xAbb07822F471773Ff00b9444308ceEB7cf0dACa7 pic.twitter.com/Ny9CIrkBxw— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) September 21, 2023
Another blockchain scam platform, Scam Sniffer, said on September 20 that funds were being sent to addresses associated with the “fake Coinone cryptocurrency mining exchange.”
About an hour ago, someone withdrew $4.46 million from Kraken to a fake Coinone cryptocurrency mining exchange. https://t.co/ued55jlWdM pic.twitter.com/tsV5BGDY0O
— Scam Sniffer (@realScamSniffer) September 20, 2023
The Scam Sniffer links to a user-created Dune Analytics dashboard, indicating that attacks of this nature resulted in scammers stealing approximately $337.1 million in USDT in total, affecting as many as 21,953 people.
related: Crypto whale loses $24 million in Ethereum stake to phishing attack
Global anti-fraud groups say this type of approval mining scam often tricks victims into authorizing unlimited withdrawals from their cryptocurrency wallets.
“When you create a self-hosted crypto wallet […] You get a “private key” protected by encryption. However, fraudsters do not need your mnemonic phrase,” GASO said, explaining on its website that when victims click to participate in a fake mining pool, the button they click will request between $10 and $50 in Ethereum network fees ( Ethereum).
While this seems reasonable, GASO believes this is intended to deceive users:
“This is just a cover to obtain your digital signature authorization, allowing unrestricted access to your wallet via the USDT smart contract.”
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