A blockchain wallet has been hacked, resulting in the loss of 12,083 spWETH tokens, worth $32 million. The incident raises concerns about the recent rise in cryptocurrency scams.
On September 27, a cryptocurrency wallet with an address ending in “e57” fell victim to a sophisticated phishing attack that resulted in the theft of 12,083 Spark Wrapped Ethereum (spWETH) tokens, worth approximately $32 million. Cybersecurity firm CertiK analyzed the incident in detail and said that initially, 10,000 spWETH (approximately $26 million) were transferred to an intermediary wallet with an address starting with “0x471c.” The funds were then dispersed to four different wallets: 1,750 ETH to “0x105c,” 2,613 ETH to “0x278d,” 3,730 ETH to “0x408d,” and 1,865 ETH to “0xfaf2.”
Although not officially confirmed, Arkham Intelligence said the hacked wallet likely belongs to Shixing Mao, founder of F2Pool, one of the world's largest Bitcoin mining pools. The incident once again raises the alarm about the sophistication and danger of phishing attacks in the cryptocurrency sector.
Source: CertiK Alert The Worrying Rise of Cryptocurrency Scams
August 2024 saw a spike in cryptocurrency scams, with a 215% increase from the previous month. According to Scam Sniffer, the total losses from the attacks exceeded $66 million, including an attack targeting a victim’s proxy ownership that cost a single wallet $55 million.
A September 2024 report from Blockaid also pointed to the emergence of AngelX, an upgraded version of the Angel Drainer scam. In just four days, AngelX deployed more than 300 fake decentralized applications (DApps), targeting new blockchain networks such as The Open Network and Tron. AngelX’s most notable feature is its upgraded dashboard, which allows attackers to easily create complex and highly customized scams.
Not only that, Scam Sniffer also warned about the DuckDuckGo search engine displaying fake Etherscan pages. These malicious links ask users to connect to MetaMask wallets, from which hackers can access and steal assets in the wallet.