Cryptocurrency fraudsters successfully stole a whopping 1,155 packaged Bitcoins using techniques to trick users into malicious transactions.
Cryptocurrency users lost more than $69.3 million in Bitcoin (WBTC) wrapped in an address poisoning attack on May 3, according to blockchain security provider CertiK. The attacker first mirrored a 0.05 Ethereum (ETH) transfer and then stole WBTC. transaction.
On-chain investigator ZachXBT and cryptocurrency security provider Cybers confirmed the news. Cybers CTO Meir Dolev said the incident may be the “highest value lost due to address poisoning fraud” to date.
In address poisoning scams, victims are given similar wallet addresses and tricked into transferring assets to the exploiter. Malicious addresses typically mimic four to six characters at the beginning and end of the address.
Users fall victim to this method because it is often difficult to spot the difference, especially since wallet addresses can in some cases exceed 40 alphanumeric characters.
The incident has already pushed the revenue generated from abuse and fraud in the past month to over $25.7 million in digital assets. CertiK also noted that April recorded the lowest level of DeFi fraud since 2021.