The Big Reveal of Cryptocurrency Wallet Authorization Traps: How 500,000 Disappeared Without a Trace
Today, I want to share a real and painful case that happened in the cryptocurrency world. A friend lost 500,000 in their wallet just because they transferred 1 USDT. I hope that by sharing this case, everyone can avoid making the same mistake.
Here's what happened: The scammer offered a high price of 9.4 RMB for 1 USDT. Sounds tempting, right? But behind this lies a deep trap. The scammer claimed that the U from the exchange is easy to trace, so they instructed my friend to withdraw U to a web3 wallet, any wallet would do, but the key was in the subsequent operations.
Following the scammer's instructions, my friend created a non-custodial wallet using a certain mobile app and then transferred their USDT to this new wallet. At this point, the scammer still could not control my friend's assets. Because the newly created wallet did not have TRX to pay for gas fees, the scammer “kindly” transferred 130 TRX as gas fees and then asked my friend to transfer 1 USDT to test the wallet.
This step is crucial! The scammer's real goal was to get my friend to perform this transfer operation. They would use various phrases, such as offering a high price for U as bait. In short, they wanted my friend to transfer some funds from their wallet to the scammer's wallet. If my friend could cancel the transaction at this point, they would not only avoid being scammed but also earn those TRX. Unfortunately, my friend did not understand how to use a web3 wallet and ended up transferring 1 USDT to the scammer.
Note that the TRX receiving address provided by the scammer was a QR code that seemed ordinary but actually concealed a secret. When my friend scanned the QR code with their web3 non-custodial wallet, they were redirected to a webpage that had been set up with code to steal authorization. When my friend thought they were just transferring 1 USDT, what was actually happening in the background was an authorization operation that transferred control of the wallet to the scammer's wallet address. The principle behind this involves setting up a multi-signature wallet. Friends who do not understand multi-signatures can look it up themselves.
As a seasoned cryptocurrency investor, I’m sharing my experiences and insights. Interested in cryptocurrency but don't know where to start? Follow me and check my homepage. I will guide you to achieve freedom in this bull market.