Ethereum
Phishing Scammer Returns $10 Million to Victim 10 Months After Stealing $24 Million in Ethereum
A crypto whale that lost $24 million worth of staked liquid Ethereum via a phishing scam last year, he got his money back.
Scam Sniffer, a blockchain security company reported that the attacker had returned more than $10 million of the stolen funds as of July 15.
Reimbursement
On the chain data shows that the attacker began attempting to repay the stolen funds on July 6, sending a message stating:
“I’m the one who took your money. I want it back.”
After the message, the attacker transferred approximately $9.3 million worth of DAI stablecoins to the victim in two transactions, according to Etherscan dataOn July 15, the attacker repaid an additional $1 million of the stolen funds, bringing the total repayment to $10.3 million at press time.
In particular, the victim confirmed receipt of these transfers by stating:
“We acknowledge that 10.3 million DAI has already been returned to this address. Thank you for your willingness to refund the money. Please resend the remainder to this address.”
On July 16, the attacker promised to repay the balance but said he wanted to speak privately with the victim. The victim then created a Telegram group, but it was unclear whether the two parties had reached an agreement on the balance as of press time.
This is not the first time that hackers have stolen and returned their loot after negotiating with their victims via blockchain messages. However, the reason for this particular refund is unclear, as the attack took place about 10 months ago.
Phishing attacks remain a major problem for cryptocurrency users, as malicious actors tend to impersonate legitimate accounts on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) to defraud their victims.
Scam Detector reported that these attacks resulted in a loss of approximately $341 million in the first six months of this year, exceeding the total $295 million stolen in 2023.