The attacker gained access to the funds after the crypto whale mistakenly provided token approval to the fraudsters by authorizing “increaseAllowance” transactions.
Phishing scams have wreaked havoc in the digital asset ecosystem and are making a comeback amidst market-wide recovery.
These attacks have grown increasingly sophisticated, leading to high-profile crypto investors, whales, and prominent industry figures becoming victims, ultimately resulting in substantial financial losses.
In its latest update on March 21st, CertiK identified a deposit of 3,700 ETH into Tornado Cash on the Ethereum blockchain.
This transfer by the hacker, valued at over $10 million, raised eyebrows due to its link with a major phishing incident dating back to September 2023. The funds were pilfered from a crypto whale.
During this phishing attack, the whale in question lost a staggering $24 million worth of staked ETH on the liquid staking provider Rocket Pool.
The hack was executed through only two transactions, with 9,579 stETH stolen in one and 4,851 rETH in another. The value of the stolen assets amounted to $15.5 million in stETH and $8.5 million in rETH at the time of the breach.
Scam Sniffer’s investigation subsequently revealed that the whale unknowingly granted token approval to the fraudsters through the authorization of “increaseAllowance” transactions.
February saw a slight decrease in losses attributed to hacks, exploits, and scams. Phishing attacks, for instance, accounted for $14.6 million out of the total $160 million lost during the month. Fortunately, $6.4 million was recovered successfully.
Scam Sniffer’s February Phishing Report revealed that many victims of phishing attacks were tricked by scams through X (formerly Twitter). Fake comments from fraudulent X accounts led unsuspecting victims to malicious websites, where they were targeted by these schemes.
Earlier this year, an anonymous individual lost $4.2 million to a phishing attack that used a falsified ERC-20 permission signature.