Creators of fake Ledger Live stole $768,000 in cryptocurrency

Users who downloaded the fake Ledger Live app from the Microsoft Store have lost $768,000 across various cryptocurrencies. On-chain analyst ZachXBT noted the incident.

Community Alert: There is currently a fake @Ledger Live app on the official @Microsoft App Store which was resulted in 16.8+ BTC ($588K) stolen

Scammer address
bc1qg05gw43elzqxqnll8vs8x47ukkhudwyncxy64q pic.twitter.com/rOZ0ZWRWbn

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) November 5, 2023

From October 19, the software circulated under the guise of a legitimate user interface for Ledger wallets, allowing users to store cryptocurrencies offline.

In total, 38 transactions worth 16.8 BTC ($588,000) were sent to the scammer’s wallet. The first of these transactions was dated October 24. The largest single transfer amounted to $81,200. 

As of writing, all coins have been moved to another address. 

ZachXBT also found the attacker’s Ethereum address, to which assets worth just over 88 ETH were credited. The total loss stood at $768,000.

Update: Received an ETH/BSC address from a victim that has collected ~$180K in funds from the fake app.

0x089Ecf0703B8E85183F29725f87da40AE488b7B9

This brings the total amount stolen to $768K+

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) November 5, 2023

Microsoft has already removed the fake Ledger Live app from its platform. Nevertheless, ZachXBT believes the tech giant should be held accountable for the situation.

Bitrace previously named popular methods of stealing bitcoins.