Hacker returns $71 million worth of crypto to phishing victim

A whale lost 1,155 Wrapped BTC (WBTC), worth $71 million, due to a phishing attack on May 3. Surprisingly, the attacker returned all the funds to the victim a week later.

On May 2, the whale spent $29.6 million DAI to buy 502 WBTC at $58,951. Later, on May 4, the victim created a new address and transferred 0.05 ETH for testing- a usual practice when moving large amounts.

As reported by Finbold, the attacker generated phishing addresses in advance and monitored users' on-chain activities. When the victim whale was about to transfer WBTC, the attacker sent 0 ETH using a phishing address.