A crypto investor lost a significant amount of USDT tokens to a phishing address, only to see his money refunded hours later.
According to data from Tronscan, the user with the wallet address "TGr…XAE" accidentally transferred $129 million worth of USDT to a phishing address on the TRON blockchain.
The phishing address, “THc…bu8,” mimicked the appearance of the intended recipient, “TMS…bu8,” by using similar start and end characters.
Before sending the large amount of money, the victim first tested the transaction with 100 USDT, but failed to notice the mismatch in the addresses while transferring the $129 million.
Notably, the erroneous transfer occurred at 09:05 UTC. A few minutes later, the phishing address moved the stolen funds to a new wallet, “TKt…f6m.” At that point, the stolen funds appeared to be lost forever.
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However, in an unexpected move, the owner of “TKt…f6m” returned 90% of the stolen funds — 116.7 million USDT — to the victim’s address at 09:58 UTC. Approximately five hours later, the remaining balance of 12.96 million USDT was also returned to the victim.
Immediately after the investors received the assets, the victim transferred the funds to their original target destination, “TMS…bu8,” where the tokens have remained ever since.
The reasons behind this unusual act of compensation remain unclear, with speculation ranging from a rare show of kindness by the phishing gang to other factors influencing their decision.
This case is an anomaly in the growing trend of crypto-related phishing scams. Last month, an address affiliated with a leading crypto venture capital firm lost $36 million in a similar attack.
In August, a whale lost $55 million in a phishing scam involving the stablecoin DAI. Phishing scams cost investors $63 million in August and $43 million in September, Crypto.news reports.
Read more: Haru Invest declared bankrupt over alleged $1 billion investor fraud