The attackers successfully pulled off a multi-stage scam, but gave themselves away through social networks
In a complex fraudulent scheme, hackers stole more than 4,000 bitcoins (BTC). Crypto detective ZachXBT has published data on the investigation of a multi-stage attack that deprived the victim of about $250 million (at the current rate) in cryptocurrency.
Three suspects used social engineering methods in their scheme. According to the detective, in order to gain access to the personal account of one client of the Genesis crypto service, a hacker pretended to be a Google support employee, another - a representative of the crypto exchange, the role of the third did not require communication with the client.
Having gained access to the victim's wallet, the hackers quickly withdrew and distributed 4,064 bitcoins across more than 15 exchanges, ZachXBT revealed the details. According to him, bitcoins were exchanged for other cryptocurrencies, mainly anonymous Monero (XMR) coins.
Despite the fact that the theft was successful, the attackers acted carelessly and "exposed" their names, and detectives got their correspondence in Discord and Telegram.
The detective also published a screen recording and conversations of the scammers via the Discord voice chat that he got hold of, which captured the immediate moment of the theft and the emotional reaction of the hackers.
The incident occurred on August 19. A month later, on the evening of September 18, two of the three suspects were arrested in Miami and Los Angeles.
The hackers spent the stolen money on a luxurious lifestyle and did not hide it, demonstrating it on social networks. Thus, detectives learned about their lifestyle, spending and location from open sources. There was no information about the capture of the third member of the group.
According to ZachXBT, the investigation, which he conducted with two other analysts and the Binance security team, resulted in more than $9 million being frozen, and about $500,000 has already been returned to the victim of the scam.
Earlier this year, ZachXBT discovered a theft of $112 million worth of XRP tokens from a wallet associated with Ripple. Ripple Labs co-founder and CEO Chris Larsen later confirmed the theft of the cryptocurrency and said that it was his personal money, not the company's.
In a complex fraudulent scheme, hackers stole more than 4,000 bitcoins (BTC). Crypto detective ZachXBT has published data on the investigation of a multi-stage attack that deprived the victim of about $250 million (at the current rate) in cryptocurrency.
Three suspects used social engineering methods in their scheme. According to the detective, in order to gain access to the personal account of one client of the Genesis crypto service, a hacker pretended to be a Google support employee, another - a representative of the crypto exchange, the role of the third did not require communication with the client.
Having gained access to the victim's wallet, the hackers quickly withdrew and distributed 4,064 bitcoins across more than 15 exchanges, ZachXBT revealed the details. According to him, bitcoins were exchanged for other cryptocurrencies, mainly anonymous Monero (XMR) coins.
Despite the fact that the theft was successful, the attackers acted carelessly and "exposed" their names, and detectives got their correspondence in Discord and Telegram.
The detective also published a screen recording and conversations of the scammers via the Discord voice chat that he got hold of, which captured the immediate moment of the theft and the emotional reaction of the hackers.
The incident occurred on August 19. A month later, on the evening of September 18, two of the three suspects were arrested in Miami and Los Angeles.
The hackers spent the stolen money on a luxurious lifestyle and did not hide it, demonstrating it on social networks. Thus, detectives learned about their lifestyle, spending and location from open sources. There was no information about the capture of the third member of the group.
According to ZachXBT, the investigation, which he conducted with two other analysts and the Binance security team, resulted in more than $9 million being frozen, and about $500,000 has already been returned to the victim of the scam.
Earlier this year, ZachXBT discovered a theft of $112 million worth of XRP tokens from a wallet associated with Ripple. Ripple Labs co-founder and CEO Chris Larsen later confirmed the theft of the cryptocurrency and said that it was his personal money, not the company's.