A phishing fraudster stole 700 ETH tokens in the preceding twenty-four hours. The total value of the stolen asset is around $1.05 million. This was mentioned in a Twitter conversation by an on-chain investigator using the handle “ZachXBT.”
1/ Over the past 24 hrs ~700 ETH ($1m) has been stolen by the phishing scammer known as Monkey Drainer.
They recently surpassed 7300 transactions from their drainer wallet after being around for only a few months. pic.twitter.com/6vAYBiqCxQ
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 25, 2022
The Process of The Attack and Its Victims
Phishing is a kind of internet fraud. It is done by scammers posing as legitimate cryptocurrency companies. This is often done on fake websites to steal private data.
Passwords for online accounts and wallet keys are examples of this sensitive data.
The sleuth uncovered several findings about this problem. First, the phony wallet that Monkey Drainer was using had been active for a few months.
Additionally, discoveries show that the scammer had completed over 7,300 transactions.
Two victims reportedly lost assets totaling almost $370,000, according to ZachXBT. This resulted from a theft responsible for more than 35% of the day’s loot.
The biggest victim had cryptocurrencies valued at about $6.2 million. However, as the other transaction attempts were turned down, the only assets taken from them were worth $220,000.
The second largest victim possessed a large number of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). One Clone X, one Bored Ape Yacht Club, and a $36,000 value of USD Coin are among these tokens (USDC). The scammer took all of them. The total worth of these non-fungible tokens is around $150,000.
Phishing Remains a Critical Weakness in The Cryptocurrency Sector
Monkey Drainer, a fraudster, has been successful in defrauding several people. ZachXBT’s projections showed this to be the case.
These fraudulent operations took place throughout the last several weeks. The total value of the stolen assets now stands at almost $3.5 million.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, released a statement at the start of this week. He promised restitution for the $6 million in assets stolen in a phishing scam.
He did note that this was an isolated instance. He emphasized the need for the corporate community to collaborate to prevent phishing.
One of the most popular ways to take advantage of weaknesses in the cryptocurrency sector is still phishing. In comparison to the first quarter, 170% more phishing attacks were in the second quarter.
This is what the findings of a study showed, as reported by the blockchain security company Certik. This is also relevant to Web3 Security’s Q2 2022.