On August 20, a cryptocurrency wallet user signed an unverified transaction, resulting in the loss of 55.47 million Dai (DAI) due to a phishing attack. After realizing the mistake, the user attempted to withdraw the funds to a new address. However, the transaction failed because the wallet’s ownership had already been changed.
The attacker withdrew $55 million from the victim’s wallet. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain warned that the attacker had transferred ownership to a newly created address and withdrawn all the digital assets from the platform. Notably, the attacker exchanged 27.5 million DAI for 10,625 Ether (ETH).
Phishing is a form of fraud in which attackers deceive victims into installing fake software or signing malicious transactions to steal digital assets. They attempt to trick victims into revealing their private keys, personal information, or granting access to their wallets. In the first half of 2024, phishing attacks caused nearly half a billion dollars in losses.
If you were this whale, what are the things that you could have done to avoid losing this huge amount?His wallet was hacked as a result of phishing attack which is not a new means hackers are using to attack someone's wallet. If you want to avoid the attack, avoid phishing attack. The attack can start from the link the attacker send to you. Avoid and not click on any link sent.
There are still 22 million DAI that have not been withdrawn and since DAI is decentralized it is difficult to freeze it so I wonder how a whale would have the technical knowledge to buy DAI and not learn the basics of avoiding phishing links. Generally it would be difficult for a new hacker to launder 10,625 Ether (ETH) without being noticed.
Or in other words, there may be an entity or organization behind such hacking.
If you were this whale, what are the things that you could have done to avoid losing this huge amount?
All the victim could do now (after requesting assistance) is to wait for the hacker to commit a mistake. We've seen how some of the amount were traced and recovered because they ended up using centralized exchanges.
In fact, I do not dare to think about putting a huge amount like this 55 million in one wallet, even if it is a hard wallet. It is better to divide the amount into parts and put it in several hard wallets, preferably cold wallets that are not connected to the Internet, to avoid such mistakes.
He didn't just click on any link; he also signed an unverified transaction. How idiotic or ignorant could he be? We shouldn't even open our wallets for small tasks but only when we need to sell or swap. Never keep all your funds in a wallet that you use for day-to-day transactions.If you were this whale, what are the things that you could have done to avoid losing this huge amount?His wallet was hacked as a result of phishing attack which is not a new means hackers are using to attack someone's wallet. If you want to avoid the attack, avoid phishing attack. The attack can start from the link the attacker send to you. Avoid and not click on any link sent.
(https://azc.news/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/A-Whale-Loses-55-Million-DAI-in-a-Phishing-Scam.webp)QuoteOn August 20, a cryptocurrency wallet user signed an unverified transaction, resulting in the loss of 55.47 million Dai (DAI) due to a phishing attack. After realizing the mistake, the user attempted to withdraw the funds to a new address. However, the transaction failed because the wallet’s ownership had already been changed.
The attacker withdrew $55 million from the victim’s wallet. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain warned that the attacker had transferred ownership to a newly created address and withdrawn all the digital assets from the platform. Notably, the attacker exchanged 27.5 million DAI for 10,625 Ether (ETH).
Phishing is a form of fraud in which attackers deceive victims into installing fake software or signing malicious transactions to steal digital assets. They attempt to trick victims into revealing their private keys, personal information, or granting access to their wallets. In the first half of 2024, phishing attacks caused nearly half a billion dollars in losses.
Get more details on this link. (https://azc.news/a-whale-loses-55-million-dai-in-a-phishing-scam-id27590/)
One thing for sure, even whales can be victims of evil people just lurking around and looking for some good opportunity to make their punch and victimize others...to the tune of 55 million dollar worth of a stablecoin. Well, if you are one of the whales or at least hodling some sizeable amount of crypto in your wallet, you must be careful and think thrice before you do anything in your wallet. Such can be the big danger if you are just a prawn in the pond...you can be targeted with people whose only job - and this has become a very lucrative job - is to get you under their radar and control your digital assets away. If you were this whale, what are the things that you could have done to avoid losing this huge amount?
Once again it is shown that people who are rich are not necessarily intelligent (there are exceptions, of course), but this is neither the first nor the last example that something like this has happened. I check each of my outgoing transactions several times before I send them, and I am especially careful about any larger amount, which I consider $1000 or more.This is not about being intelligent. Anyone can be a victim. We are all vulnerable in this industry and no matter how careful we are, there must be victims. We could only be more careful to avoid being victims. In the other forum, theymos mistakenly sent $1k to a private newbie who refunded the BTC. I didn't imagine that theymos will make such a mistake. So, anyone no matter how intelligent can be a victim.
Yes indeed it is a rather interesting question how do whales secure their coins?In fact, I do not dare to think about putting a huge amount like this 55 million in one wallet, even if it is a hard wallet. It is better to divide the amount into parts and put it in several hard wallets, preferably cold wallets that are not connected to the Internet, to avoid such mistakes.
It's interesting idea, but there's trade-off where you need to backup multiple wallet and remember PIN/password for those wallets. Now i wonder how other whale secure their coin.
This question intrigued me and I found some answers you can check some of them in this link on reddit it might be helpful
https://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinBeginners/comments/wdphdb/how_do_whales_keep_their_massive_amounts_of/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinBeginners/comments/wdphdb/how_do_whales_keep_their_massive_amounts_of/)
This question seems to intrigue everyone.
To protect their bitcoin holdings, the brothers distributed snippets of a printout of their private keys across multiple safe deposits around the United States. This ensured that even if thieves got their hands on a fragment of the private key, the others would still be outside their reach[/font][/size][/size]
Yes indeed it is a rather interesting question how do whales secure their coins?In fact, I do not dare to think about putting a huge amount like this 55 million in one wallet, even if it is a hard wallet. It is better to divide the amount into parts and put it in several hard wallets, preferably cold wallets that are not connected to the Internet, to avoid such mistakes.
It's interesting idea, but there's trade-off where you need to backup multiple wallet and remember PIN/password for those wallets. Now i wonder how other whale secure their coin.
This question intrigued me and I found some answers you can check some of them in this link on reddit it might be helpful
https://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinBeginners/comments/wdphdb/how_do_whales_keep_their_massive_amounts_of/
This question seems to intrigue everyone.
Once again it is shown that people who are rich are not necessarily intelligent (there are exceptions, of course), but this is neither the first nor the last example that something like this has happened. I check each of my outgoing transactions several times before I send them, and I am especially careful about any larger amount, which I consider $1000 or more.This is not about being intelligent. Anyone can be a victim. We are all vulnerable in this industry and no matter how careful we are, there must be victims. We could only be more careful to avoid being victims. In the other forum, theymos mistakenly sent $1k to a private newbie who refunded the BTC. I didn't imagine that theymos will make such a mistake. So, anyone no matter how intelligent can be a victim.
Once again it is shown that people who are rich are not necessarily intelligent (there are exceptions, of course), but this is neither the first nor the last example that something like this has happened. I check each of my outgoing transactions several times before I send them, and I am especially careful about any larger amount, which I consider $1000 or more.This is not about being intelligent. Anyone can be a victim. We are all vulnerable in this industry and no matter how careful we are, there must be victims. We could only be more careful to avoid being victims. In the other forum, theymos mistakenly sent $1k to a private newbie who refunded the BTC. I didn't imagine that theymos will make such a mistake. So, anyone no matter how intelligent can be a victim.
You can't compare $1000 and $55 million - so who in their right mind keeps that much value in a hot wallet?Well, I also understand your view and it is true. Being that we need to be more careful, especially when a huge amount is involved. As you also rightly captured above, $55M might not be that much to them lol.
QuoteYou can't compare $1000 and $55 million - so who in their right mind keeps that much value in a hot wallet?Well, I also understand your view and it is true. Being that we need to be more careful, especially when a huge amount is involved. As you also rightly captured above, $55M might not be that much to them lol.
However, we shouldn't blame them for keeping such amount in hot wallet because we know the nature of their business. They need that large amount to manipulate the market at any time, so keeping such in a cold wallet might make them miss the manipulation opportunities. Trust you understand what I meant.
In general, the hack could be intended for tax evasion, if I report my money stolen and send it to a friend then he can use it to buy a property in another country without paying taxes.Yes, this is a very good way to evade taxes, but it is not completely safe.
Oh very sad news. But it also true that most of the people are fetching thats kinds of phishing attack. Scammers are now very uptodate and talented. They are creating new new scamming way regularly. Who will do mistakes he will fall in risk and he will loss his valuable fund.
Now a days we saw phishing link coming in our device even in our email. Who will open it he will be Caught. He will loss his all fund. So we have to more Secure about phishing attack.
There are still 22 million DAI that have not been withdrawn and since DAI is decentralized it is difficult to freeze it so I wonder how a whale would have the technical knowledge to buy DAI and not learn the basics of avoiding phishing links. Generally it would be difficult for a new hacker to launder 10,625 Ether (ETH) without being noticed.It's indeed surprising that someone with the technical knowledge to accumulate such a large amount of DAI or ETH might still fall victim to phishing attacks. However, the nature of phishing exploits relies heavily on social engineering, which can deceive even experienced users if executed well. The attacker might have created a very convincing phishing scenario that bypassed the user's defenses.
Or in other words, there may be an entity or organization behind such hacking.
---This is the one that got me. Just imagine how much these scammers are getting to these innocent asset holders. If the same happens for the 2nd half the year, they will be getting more or less a billion dollars for just one year. This is the reason why I always say that the scammers are becoming more and more knowledgeable with how they scam other investors. On the other hand, investors are becoming dumber and dumber especially on how they secure their assets.
In the first half of 2024, phishing attacks caused nearly half a billion dollars in losses.
One thing for sure, even whales can be victims of evil people just lurking around and looking for some good opportunity to make their punch and victimize others...to the tune of 55 million dollar worth of a stablecoin. Well, if you are one of the whales or at least hodling some sizeable amount of crypto in your wallet, you must be careful and think thrice before you do anything in your wallet. Such can be the big danger if you are just a prawn in the pond...you can be targeted with people whose only job - and this has become a very lucrative job - is to get you under their radar and control your digital assets away. If you were this whale, what are the things that you could have done to avoid losing this huge amount?Having a lot of money doesn't mean that you have a lot of knowledge and we saw it here on this recent phishing attack.
One thing for sure, even whales can be victims of evil people just lurking around and looking for some good opportunity to make their punch and victimize others...to the tune of 55 million dollar worth of a stablecoin. Well, if you are one of the whales or at least hodling some sizeable amount of crypto in your wallet, you must be careful and think thrice before you do anything in your wallet. Such can be the big danger if you are just a prawn in the pond...you can be targeted with people whose only job - and this has become a very lucrative job - is to get you under their radar and control your digital assets away. If you were this whale, what are the things that you could have done to avoid losing this huge amount?It happens sometimes whales also become the prey but this time it was a big one and I am pretty sure the hunter would be very happy if he did not get caught I am sorry for the prey lost but why did he sign a transaction without knowing the source. This is so dumb and looks like he does not even deserve to have this much money but the nature of the world is always unpredictable because smart ones have no money while the dumb ones are making a lot haha.
This is the one that got me. Just imagine how much these scammers are getting to these innocent asset holders. If the same happens for the 2nd half the year, they will be getting more or less a billion dollars for just one year. This is the reason why I always say that the scammers are becoming more and more knowledgeable with how they scam other investors. On the other hand, investors are becoming dumber and dumber especially on how they secure their assets.To be fair, when people lose all they have they tend to just leave the ecossystem. I feel like most people who are easily scammable have already lost what they have and now it's getting harder to get new victims as it was in the beginning. Not saying scammers will be gone, since it's still very profitable to scam people (sadly), but a few extra billions I'm not sure.
To be fair, when people lose all they have they tend to just leave the ecossystem. I feel like most people who are easily scammable have already lost what they have and now it's getting harder to get new victims as it was in the beginning. Not saying scammers will be gone, since it's still very profitable to scam people (sadly), but a few extra billions I'm not sure.
One thing for sure, even whales can be victims of evil people just lurking around and looking for some good opportunity to make their punch and victimize others...
That's pain in the ass, losing that amount and it could be the victim's life savings in crypto. Phishing is still common and hackers doesn't really need to reinvent their techniques. Those that have a lot of holdings need to be aware of any attack can happen whether it's phishing or not. Protect your assets and be careful to the transactions that you sign with these smart contracts or any website that you visit, always verify things for your own sake.Phishing attacks are nothing new to a hacker, but as a victim I find them suicidal. To escape from this situation, the holder has no choice but to take precautions. It is important to be careful in every case, especially those with high assets. Necessary measures must be taken to ensure the security of the device on which the held assets reside. I wouldn't use that device for anything else except transection. I will try to use separate devices for personal work in order to maintain maximum security in protecting my assets.
Phishing attacks are nothing new to a hacker, but as a victim I find them suicidal. To escape from this situation, the holder has no choice but to take precautions. It is important to be careful in every case, especially those with high assets. Necessary measures must be taken to ensure the security of the device on which the held assets reside. I wouldn't use that device for anything else except transection. I will try to use separate devices for personal work in order to maintain maximum security in protecting my assets.Yeah, I also don't understand why a whale with over $50M in assets could be so careless. If I had that much crypto, I'd store it in multiple cold wallets and only use a few hot wallets when interacting with DeFi, while carefully verifying the protocols before signing any proposals.
That's pain in the ass, losing that amount and it could be the victim's life savings in crypto. Phishing is still common and hackers doesn't really need to reinvent their techniques. Those that have a lot of holdings need to be aware of any attack can happen whether it's phishing or not. Protect your assets and be careful to the transactions that you sign with these smart contracts or any website that you visit, always verify things for your own sake.
This keep me wondering how this kind of mistake could have happened to a whale, the amount in consideration here is much and as we already know that crypto transactions are irreversible, ones sent and confirmed, that settles it all, i rarely see that a whale will fall into the hands of scammers when he knows what took him to be where he was, there is no need of relenting efforts in what we do.the only reason i can think of is that this whale was just influenced and not really an expert when it comes to these things it is not uncommon for the rich to have financial advisors which basically just tell them what to do not all rich are very careful and smart it is unfortunate for him but i hope that teaches him a lesson
It happens sometimes whales also become the prey but this time it was a big one and I am pretty sure the hunter would be very happy if he did not get caught I am sorry for the prey lost but why did he sign a transaction without knowing the source. This is so dumb and looks like he does not even deserve to have this much money but the nature of the world is always unpredictable because smart ones have no money while the dumb ones are making a lot haha.Well this dumb one did not make money but lost a big amount. You are right, 55 million DAI is not a small amount, it's so big, and the mistake was so childish too, like newbies make such mistakes and they don't lose in millions because newbies also don't take risks with millions of dollars and attach their wallets to any site they found.
Anyway I hope his funds will be tracked by the professionals and he could get them back because losing that much money to a scammer is the biggest mistake that no one want to do even by mistake haha.
This keep me wondering how this kind of mistake could have happened to a whale, the amount in consideration here is much and as we already know that crypto transactions are irreversible, ones sent and confirmed, that settles it all, i rarely see that a whale will fall into the hands of scammers when he knows what took him to be where he was, there is no need of relenting efforts in what we do.the only reason i can think of is that this whale was just influenced and not really an expert when it comes to these things it is not uncommon for the rich to have financial advisors which basically just tell them what to do not all rich are very careful and smart it is unfortunate for him but i hope that teaches him a lesson
If you were this whale, what are the things that you could have done to avoid losing this huge amount?
This is the one that got me. Just imagine how much these scammers are getting to these innocent asset holders. If the same happens for the 2nd half the year, they will be getting more or less a billion dollars for just one year. This is the reason why I always say that the scammers are becoming more and more knowledgeable with how they scam other investors. On the other hand, investors are becoming dumber and dumber especially on how they secure their assets.To be fair, when people lose all they have they tend to just leave the ecossystem. I feel like most people who are easily scammable have already lost what they have andQuotenow it's getting harder to get new victims as it was in the beginning.Not saying scammers will be gone, since it's still very profitable to scam people (sadly), but a few extra billions I'm not sure.