ZachXBT, an on-chain investigator, revealed the identity of a victim involved in a massive Bitcoin theft in the United States. The stolen funds, totalling 3,520 BTC (approximately $330 million), were transferred from the victim’s wallet to a different address.
$330 Million Bitcoin TheftVictim Identified
ZachXBT confirmed that the victim of this theft was an elderly individual residing in the U.S. From the investigations’ perspective, the theft was related to social engineering. This type of crypto scam includes deceptive practices that are a form of fraud like emails or phone calls with the aim of obtaining personal and confidential information from the target.
The victim’s Bitcoin was moved from a wallet that was holding a substantial amount of cryptocurrency.
The attackers specifically targeted this individual, who seems unaware of the sophisticated methods they employed. ZachXBT expressed concern about how the attackers were able to access the victim’s private information, given the advanced nature of the scam.
Social Engineering Theft Details
Social engineering scams are another form of danger in the cryptocurrency space since people make victims give the scammers direct access to their digital wallets. This probably is what happened to the elderly victim in this case, which includes schemes that may involve email fraud to phone scams. This type of scams target the victims and take advantage of their familiarity with the technology making it quite difficult to spot them until when they are already operating.
On-chain investigator ZachXBT also pointed out that the attackers transferred the funds in a suspicious manner and immediately moved them.
They traded the Bitcoins on over six platforms before exchanging them for Monero, a privacy coin that makes it difficult to trace transactions. These series of moves were suspicious more especially because it came close on the heel of a sharp increase in the price of XMR.
Investigation and Ongoing Concerns
The investigation into the theft is ongoing, and ZachXBT has been closely monitoring the situation. He pointed out that the BTC involved in the theft had originated from sources that were “interesting,” raising questions about the initial acquisition of the funds. The laundering and conversion of the funds to XMR point to an effort to conceal the origin of the stolen cryptocurrency.
Despite the increase in phishing attacks in the crypto space, the volume of this theft puts it among the largest in the last few months. The loss includes one of the biggest single losses in the history of Bitcoin thefts, both in terms of quantity and monetary value.
This theft occurs against the background of growing concerns about the safety of digital assets and the prevalence of such frauds in the crypto space. This year alone, the losses to this industry have reached to millions of dollars despite US Secret Service, with Canadian authorities, disrupting over $4.3M Ethereum phishing scam. Meanwhile, Immunefi, a platform specializing in web3 bug bounties and security services, claims that thieves have stolen over $92m worth of crypto this month alone.
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