Email Phishing Scam Targeting BlockFi and FTX Creditors Numbers in the Millions

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By Harper Lee

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An Ethereum wallet with an ENS name too crude to publish has amassed millions of dollars over the past week in cryptocurrency and NFTs in what appears to be a sophisticated scam operation.

Security expert Plumferno first reported the operation in a thread on phishing emails allegedly sent by crypto companies BlockFi and FTX, and possibly others, to creditors of the now-bankrupt companies.

It’s possible that the hacker obtained the list of email addresses from data initially stolen from the Mailer Lite email service, which was hacked in January, leading to another phishing scam that raked in big money , Plumferno said.

This email, purporting to be from BlockFi, is actually a sophisticated phishing attempt.

“The worst part of this scam is that most of the assets were stolen from dormant wallets – people who were likely affected by BlockFi’s bankruptcy and haven’t touched the funds since,” Plumferno wrote in his post. thread. “It is also likely that some of these victims are still unaware that they have been robbed.”

Blockchain data reviewed by The Block shows inflows of nearly $4.5 million in ether into the wallet since March 17, with more transactions arriving by the second. Additionally, the wallet appears to have stolen and sold several high-value NFTs, including Mutant Apes, Otherdeeds, and more.

Crypto-phishing attacks are an increasingly common attack vector for cybercriminals, with $300 million stolen in these attacks last year alone. Even experienced figures in the crypto industry sometimes fall victim to such scams, highlighting the need to be careful when interacting with new protocols.


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