DeFi
‘I want to give the money back,’ says hacker who stole $24 million in staked Ether last year – DL News
- A hacker contacted his victim to offer to return the stolen funds, almost a year after the incident.
- Less than half of the stolen funds have been returned.
- Phishing attacks remain a major concern for cryptocurrency owners.
A hacker contacted his victim to offer to return the stolen cryptocurrencies, almost a year after the attack.
Last September, the investor suffered a loss of $24 million after falling victim to a phishing attack, where the hacker tricks his target into approving a malicious smart contract designed to siphon funds.
In a surprising twist, the victim heard from the hacker on July 6.
“Hello, I’m the guy who took your money,” the hacker said in a chain message to the victim.
On-chain communication allows cryptocurrency users to send messages as transactions using their wallets and can be viewed using explorers like Etherscan.
“I want to give you the money back, I’m waiting for your answer,” the pirate said.
The hacker contacted the victim using a different wallet address than those reported in last year’s hack.
On Monday, the victim confirmed that he had received some of the stolen funds.
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“Acknowledging that 10.3 million DAI have already been returned to this address,” the victim said in a statement. chain message.
In chain data Etherscan’s data shows that the hacker began the refund process last week and sent three transactions totaling $10.3 million in DAI stablecoin.
“Thank you for your willingness to refund me. Please send the remainder to this address.”
At the time of reporting, the victim was still waiting for the remainder of the stolen funds.
Last year, $24 million in stETH and rETH was stolen from the victim.
StETH and rETH are liquid staking tokens offered by Lido and RocketPool respectively. Both providers give the tokens in exchange for a user staking their Ether tokens on the respective protocols.
After the attack, the hacker routed several $100,000 transactions through FixedFloat, a cryptocurrency exchange often used by hackers and exploiters to move siphoned funds.
Phishing attacks
Phishing attacks have been a major headache for cryptocurrency owners over the past year.
The Onchain Scam Sniffer fraud detector reported that $300 million in crypto was lost to phishing attacks in 2024 ― 17% Total cryptocurrency thefts last year.
Large-scale wallet drainers like MS Drainer, Inferno Drainer and Pink Monkey were the main culprits.
In another major crypto phishing attack this year, the victim $72 Million Lost in Wrapped Bitcoin Tokens ― Bitcoin on the Ethereum network.
The attacker returned all funds despite an agreement to retain a 10% bonus.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our DeFi correspondent based in Nigeria. He covers DeFi and technology. To share tips or information on articles, please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.