A Whale Loses 55 Million DAI in a Phishing Scam

[Lucius]

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.

If by any chance I had $55 million in crypto, they would be protected in such a way that it would be difficult for me personally to get to them, let alone for a hacker to do it. Some people obviously just need to be asked nicely - "Hey, will you send me $55 million, you just need to sign this transaction?" and boom, you have a fortune on your account

[robelneo]

Whales should have a very high standard of security, because millions of dollars are at stake, they should be updated on all type and kinds of hacking and scamming, and they should employ all the security tools to make their machine as safe as possible.

Hackers keeps updating and keep employing new scheme to scam investors, especially whales, so its ipoprtant to be one step ahead when it comes to security.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

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Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain warned that the attacker had transferred ownership to a newly created address and withdrawn all the digital assets from the platform.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.

Get more details on this link.


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?

If the crayfish investors are loosing and cant help the prevention of losses through attempts like that of the phishing scam and threats, then the whales are not left out in this scenario because those that do scam others are the ones who will be always looking out for updates around in other for them to use as weapons against the safety of other users, but when we are informed about how they operate, we may have a reduced chance of being their victim in scam, anyone can lose and fall their trap including whales, except extra care and measures are effectively put into consideration.

[KingsDen]

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.

[yhiaali3]

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.

Yes indeed it is a rather interesting question how do whales secure their coins?

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.

[hugeblack]

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.

I don't know if this quote is true or not but if this is how whales think about how to secure their money then it is no wonder it is so easy to hack.


Splitting the private key produces lower entropy and even using SSS gives much less security than using a multi-signature wallet.


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.

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]

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[ABCbits]

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.

Yes indeed it is a rather interesting question how do whales secure their coins?

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.

Most of the responses are common approach (multisig, cold wallet, etc.). But it has 2 interesting comment which leads to these links,
https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners-ebook/dp/B07BRQ864J/
https://www.investopedia.com/news/how-winklevoss-twins-store-their-crypto-fortune/

I'm not aware author of that book, where i don't plan to read 146 pages to satisfy my curiosity. Although Winklevoss Twins approach is rather unique since they use deposit safe where they need to trust the owner.

[Lucius]

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? It can't happen to everyone to be a victim, it's just a phrase you can repeat, but it's simply not true.

We are all vulnerable and there is no doubt about that, but if you understand the risks, then you will always be on your guard and do everything to prevent something like this from happening to you. Something like that has never happened to me, and with a healthy conscience and mind, I'm sure it will never happen.

[Kemarit]

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.

But this is huge amount of money that we are talking here, so you really need to be very very careful on how he should handled those millions. To be honest, if I'm going to transfer more than $1000, I will be very nervous and will check everything and I should be in the right frame of mind and not be distracted by my environment because one mistakes and it's over. So just like the whale here, he should have known better not to use or store his millions in a machine that is always connected to the internet.

[KingsDen]

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.
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.

[Lucius]

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.
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.

They say that bad things happen to bad people, and if someone manipulates the market and causes financial losses to others, then there is some justice in the well-deserved punishment. Although it does not seem to me that this is the case in this specific case, who knows, maybe that person has x10 more and can afford this kind of carelessness.

Be that as it may, this is a warning to everyone else, always be alert and check everything several times because every mistake can cost you dearly.

[kulkhan]

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.

[yhiaali3]

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.

What if this whale's friend took these assets for himself and bought a luxury house for himself instead of the real owner of the money? Then he will not be able to file a complaint because he has already announced that his money was stolen.

[Bobcrypto]

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.

Everyday scammers are upgrading their method of dealing with people, but unfortunately, most crypto users are carried away by the mindset of markings profits and ignoring some sensitive areas of online transactions like Security and safety of the unknown. To me, it is not a pleasant news at all because anybody could be a victim of phishing attacks mistakingly probably in an attempt to make quick money.
I am always very safety conscious about phishing link that comes my way, and it's advisable for everyone to be mindful in clicking unnecessary links.

[MUGNIA]

What is certain is that I will not use my main wallet as a wallet that randomly links phishing links given by people, because by storing assets in the main wallet, there is little chance that the wallet will be hacked by irresponsible people.