On-chain analyst ZachXBT suspects influencer’s involvement in a $1.5 million scam

Known as Blue and Jack, the influencer participated in Monkey Drainer and other similar phishing schemes, earning more than $1.5 million. The conclusion reached by the blockchain analyst under the pseudonym ZachXBT.

The Monkey Drainer project sells a toolkit for “cold phishing.” CertiK thuslabelled the scheme as a scam, where users Web3 are deceived into signing approvals to use their crypto wallets, granting full access to the funds.

Blue built an audience of 122,000 subscribers on YouTube through gaming and trolling videos before turning to digital assets in 2021.

According to the researcher, a Snapchat message leak from the blogger showed his link to the ENS address cool-breeze.eth, which in October 2022 purchased the token Bored Ape Yacht Club #8668.

After reviewing the history, ZachXBT concluded that about a third of the 85 ETH spent on purchases came from funds associated with wallets linked to Monkey Drainer. In total, the damage from this scheme as much as $24 million.

In February, the service shut down with the message: “in pursuit of easy money, young cybercriminals should not be allowed to chase quick cash.” The creators proposed using an alternative resource Venom.

According to ZachXBT, Blue often boasted about successful scams and buying BAYC, showing screenshots of learning scam techniques in Discord.

After a purported rift with other Monkey participants following the theft of his token, Blue turned to other similar schemes under new ENS addresses. The influencer boasted of purchases funded by stolen proceeds — from watches to cars and Roblox items.

Blue’s main method was sending spam on Twitter from verified accounts.

As an example, ZachXBT cited a user g13m, who in July lost ETH and USDT worth about $213,000 due to a phishing site for Doodles NFT. Blue could have earned 49 ETH and 74,000 USDT after fees from this.

“He provided additional information about Blue (Jack) to the victims to help file a lawsuit,” —concluded the researcher.

Earlier, in October 2022, ZachXBT found that the Monkey Drainer scammers drained victims’ wallets by roughly $1 million in just 24 hours.

Earlier, the on-chain sleuth became a defendant in a defamation lawsuit by Taiwanese entrepreneur Jeffrey Huang. The expert set up a donation address and asked the audience to help cover legal costs, which “could easily exceed $1 million.” His supporters included prominent industry figures.