Trader loses over $674K to phishing scam

An unidentified market participant unfortunately fell victim to a phishing scam, leading to a significant loss of over $674,000 in USDC amid the escalating prevalence of these deceptive schemes.

Blockchain security platform PeckShield identified the incident in a recent post on X, citing on-chain data from Ethereum blockchain explorer Etherscan. 

Notably, the perpetrators drained 674,962 USDC from the victim’s wallets to two distinct addresses today at 04:57 AM UTC, allocating 607,527 USDC to an untagged wallet and the remaining 67,435 USDC to a wallet specifically identified as a phishing address.

After receiving the $607,527 in USDC, the untagged wallet moved the USDC to Ox, a blockchain-based protocol that allows the peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange of digital assets. The perpetrators then swapped the USDC for 160.32 Ethereum (ETH) tokens, moving 159 ETH to a Zerion wallet.

Interestingly, on-chain data reveals that the scammers have continued to drain the victim’s address since March 1. Notably, they have been consistently invoking smart contract functions geared toward transferring assets to addresses they control.

The first of these transactions involved the 35.44 AstraAI (ASTRA) tokens valued at $98.18. Similar movements involving other assets followed, with over 400 transactions of this nature executed over the past five days. 

While the $647,000 transfer represents the largest, data confirms it is not the latest, as the victim’s address has continued to move assets to the phishing wallet, transferring 691,333 NOIA Token (NOIA) valued at $163,378 shortly after the $647,000 movement.

The victim, whose balance now sits at over $59,000, would have to revoke any permissions granted to the perpetrators to halt the constant diversion of funds. Notably, the crypto community has witnessed a growth of phishing scams in the space, as malicious actors devise more sophisticated tools to target unsuspecting investors.

Some of these scams leverage hacked social media accounts belonging to reputable individuals and fake emails. In one instance, victims lost $440,000 in an airdrop scam after the exploiters leveraged a compromised MicroStrategy X account to publicize the scheme.

Notably, on-chain security resource Scam Sniffer disclosed on Jan. 1 that the growing prevalence of phishing scams last year resulted in the loss of over $300 million throughout the year, with up to 320,000 users affected.