An anonymous individual lost a staggering $68 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) in a single transaction as a result of an address-poisoning scam.
The theft of $68 million came to light through a post by on-chain security firm Cyvers on May 3. The incident involved an address poisoning attack, which occurs when scammers deceive unsuspecting victims into sending their digital assets to fraudulent addresses.
The victim in this case, identified as wallet “0x1E,” has suffered a loss of over 97% of its total assets, equivalent to more than $67.8 million, according to CoinStats.
Address poisoning, also known as address spoofing, takes advantage of traders’ inattentiveness and haste during transactions. It preys on their negligence and aims to swindle them into sending their assets to scammers’ fake addresses.
The crypto industry continues to be plagued by scams, eroding trust in the mainstream. In April, investors lost a minimum of $33 million in digital assets due to the ZKasino gambling platform fraud case. Dutch authorities apprehended a suspect connected to the ZKasino scam on April 29 and seized $12.2 million.
Despite the ZKasino incident, the total losses from scams and hacks in April amounted to only $25.7 million, the lowest figure since 2021, when CertiK began tracking such data. The report reveals a 141% decrease in losses compared to the previous month, primarily due to fewer compromises of private keys. In April, there were only three instances of private key leaks, whereas March witnessed over 11 attacks resulting from private key compromises.
However, CertiK’s calculations exclude the $33 million ZKasino scam. Although the project is considered to be “controversial” in the report, it has not been officially labeled as a scam.
On April 22, ZKasino transferred all 10,515 Ether (ETH) deposited by investors to the Lido staking protocol, further raising concerns among investors. CertiK stated that it would update its figures if ZKasino’s malicious intent is confirmed.
The Lazarus Group, a notorious hacking group, has laundered more than $200 million in hacked cryptocurrencies since 2020, according to recent reports.