Pink Drain hacker stole $4.4M worth of LINK

Notorious crypto hacker group Pink Drainers was implicated in a highly sophisticated phishing scam that resulted in the loss of $4.4 million worth of Chainlink (LINK) tokens.

This latest cyber theft targeted a single victim who fell into a deceptive tactic that resulted in the signing of transactions associated with the "increase approval" feature.

Pink Drainer takes advantage of the "Add Approval" feature

The “increase approval” feature is a standard procedure in the crypto world and allows users to set a limit on the number of coins that can be transferred to another wallet.

The move allowed 275,700 LINK tokens to be transferred without authorization in two separate transactions without the knowledge of the victims.

Details from Scam Sniffer, a crypto security platform, revealed that the coins were stolen in two separate transfers.

Initially, 68,925 LINK tokens were transferred to a wallet labeled “PinkDrainer: Wallet 2” by Etherscan. The remaining 206,775 LINKs were sent to another address ending in "E70e".

Renowned crypto detective ZachXBT also revealed that the stolen funds were quickly converted to Ethereum (ETH) and laundered through the eXch service, complicating the tracing of the assets.

“The stolen funds have been sold for ETH and are currently being laundered through eXch,” he said.

$4.4M Chainlink heist linked to pink drain

Scam Sniffer’s investigation confirmed the involvement of the Pink Drainer group in this theft, although the exact method used to force victims to authorize token transfers is currently unclear.

Scam Sniffer also discovered at least 10 new scam websites related to pink drainers in the past 24 hours alone.

The Pink Drainer gang is notorious for its high-profile attacks on platforms such as Twitter and Discord, and has been linked to incidents at platforms such as Evomos, Pika Protocol, and Orbiter Finance.

Earlier this year, they were also accused of running a scam under the guise of crypto journalists, resulting in the theft of approximately $3 million from more than 1,932 victims.

The latest data from Dune Analytics shows that as of December 19, Pink Drainer’s activity has escalated, with total losses totaling $18.7 million, affecting 9,068 victims.

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