Scammer seeks victim’s Telegram to return stolen $68m

The hacker who stole $68 million worth of cryptocurrency has offered to return the assets via social media platform Telegram.

Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT reported that the hacker believed to be behind the attack and the theft of $68 million in assets has decided to return the money to the victim.

The attacker left a message in the Etherscan.io chat and asked for the victim’s Telegram to return 51 Ethereum (ETH).

At the time of writing, the victim had not responded to the hacker. It is also unknown why the hacker has offered to return the stolen assets a week after the theft.

An unknown user lost $68 million in cryptocurrency earlier this month due to inattention and an attack through spam transactions. The victim was duped into sending scammers 1,155 WBTC worth more than $68 million, becoming the victim of a spam attack.

In this case, the spam attack type is also called a poisoning or dust attack. Small amounts of cryptocurrency are sent to a target’s wallet from addresses just a few characters different from the address the victim regularly transfers to.

Despite the significant theft, crypto project losses from hacks have dropped by 141% within the last month, according to CertiK. The declared amount stemming from crypto hacks totaled $21 million. Crypto projects also lost $4.3 million due to exit scams and $129,000 due to flash loan fraud.

Since the beginning of 2024, crypto projects have lost $449 million. The largest attack remains the hacking of the Orbit Bridge, which cost its victims $81.5 million.