Meanwhile, the latest development in the crypto market is a rare bright spot in the bleak landscape of phishing attacks and other malicious activities in the emerging economy.
In an unexpected twist, a phishing scam victim has recovered $9.3 million, ten months after falling prey to a $24 million crypto theft in September last year. The dramatic turnaround was first reported by Scam Sniffer on July 13, revealing that the scammer used Dai stablecoin to return the funds in two separate batches.
A Change of Heart
On July 6, the scammer had a change of heart and reached out to the victim through an on-chain message, revealing his intention to return the stolen funds:
“Hello, I am the guy who took your money. I want to give the money back.”
Two days later, the criminal started the reimbursement with an initial transfer of $5.23 million worth of the Dai stablecoin on July 8, as shown on Etherscan.
On July 13, the scammer made another transfer to the victim’s wallet address. According to Scam Sniffer, the bad actor returned approximately $4.04 million to the same address as the first time at 12:06 PM UTC, bringing the total to $9.3 million.
💰 The scammer returned $9.27M in DAI to the victim.
(credits: @bax1337) https://t.co/xwSASQOUis pic.twitter.com/T5vF1Ak3wo
— Scam Sniffer | Web3 Anti-Scam (@realScamSniffer) July 13, 2024
On-chain data also showed that the returned Dai originated from an address associated with Railgun Relay, a privacy protocol intermediary.
The victim, who had been grappling with the significant financial loss, was relieved to see nearly 40% of their stolen funds returned. At the time of the return, the $9.3 million represented about 38.4% of the stolen assets’ value based on September 2023 prices.
However, if the 14,429 staked Ether tokens were valued at today’s market prices, they would be worth approximately $47.5 million.
Remaining Funds
Etherscan data shows that despite the return of funds, the scammer’s wallet still holds a significant amount of other cryptocurrencies. According to blockchain data, the crypto wallet has more than $3 million, primarily consisting of METAGALAXY LAND (MEGALAND) tokens from the BNB Chain.
The original heist occurred on September 6, 2023, when the victim lost 9,579 Lido Staked Ether (stETH) and 4,850 Rocket Pool (rETH) tokens.
The thief had tricked the victim into approving token allowances through “Increase Allowance” transactions, a feature that permits third-party spending rights on ERC-20 tokens. This exploit allowed the scammer to drain the victim’s assets.
A Rare Bright Spot
Meanwhile, the latest development in the crypto market is a rare bright spot in the bleak landscape of phishing attacks and other malicious activities in the emerging economy.
In 2023, phishing scams alone resulted in the loss of nearly $300 million from 324,000 victims. According to Scam Sniffer’s 2023 Wallet Drainers Report, two of the most popular schemes were Inferno Drainer and MS Drainer. Cybercriminals used these two methods to siphon a total of $140 million last year.
Inferno Drainer attacks stole $81 million, while MS Drainer led to the loss of $59 million in 2023. Another significant phishing attack was Pink Drainer, which siphoned over $85 million before it shut down in May.
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