Crypto News- Scammer returns $9.3M DAI after 10 months
Crypto News– A phishing scammer has suddenly returned nearly $9.3 million to a victim after stealing $24 million from them in a phishing attack last September.
First noticed by Scam Sniffer on July 13, the scammer used the Dai (DAI) stablecoin to return the funds across two transactions last week.
The first transfer saw $5.23 million returned on July 8, while another $4.04 million was sent on July 13 at 12:06 pm UTC, according to Etherscan data. This comes 10 months after the victim fell for a $24.2 million phishing scam on September 6, 2023, losing 9,579 Lido Staked Ether (stETH) and 4,850 Rocket Pool (rETH) tokens.
According to Scam Sniffer’s post at the time of the incident, the victim enabled token approvals to the scammer by signing Increase Allowance transactions.
Allowance is an ERC-20 token feature that enables a third party to have the right to spend tokens belonging to the owner.
Crypto market data platform CoinMarketCap and other industry players have flagged this loophole, noting that it can potentially allow anonymous developers to deploy malicious smart contracts to scam users.
The recent $9.3 million return equates to a 38.4% fund return at September 6 prices, though the 14,429 staked Ether would have been worth $47.5 million at today’s prices.
Etherscan data shows that after transferring $9 million, the scammer’s wallet still holds a little over $3 million. Almost 99% of these funds are in METAGALAXY LAND (MEGALAND) tokens from the BNB Chain.
According to Scam Sniffer’s 2023 Wallet Drainers Report, phishing scammers stole nearly $300 million worth of crypto from 324,000 victims in 2023.
Inferno Drainer and MS Drainer were the most notorious phishing scammers of 2023, stealing $81 million and $59 million, respectively. This year, Pink Drainer emerged as a major threat, stealing over $85 million before shutting down in May.
FAQs
What is DAI?
DAI is a stablecoin cryptocurrency that aims to keep its value as close to one US dollar as possible. It is issued by the MakerDAO system on the Ethereum blockchain.
How did the scammer steal the funds originally?
The scammer executed a phishing attack on September 6, 2023, tricking the victim into signing Increase Allowance transactions, which allowed the scammer to access the victim’s tokens.
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