Researcher accuses Monkey Drainer phishing scammers of $1m cryptocurrency theft

In total over 24 hours, the scam group known as Monkey Drainer stole roughly $1 million in crypto assets via phishing, according to an on-chain researcher going by ZachXBT.

1/ Over the past 24 hrs ~700 ETH ($1m) has been stolen by the phishing scammer known as Monkey Drainer.

They recently surpassed 7300 transactions from their drainer wallet after being around for only a few months. pic.twitter.com/6vAYBiqCxQ

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 25, 2022

A significant portion of the losses was borne by two Ethereum wallets ending in 0x02a and 0x626.

\”In total they lost $370,000 by signing transactions on malicious phishing sites operated by Monkey Drainer,\” the expert noted.

2/ The two largest victims over the past day include 0x02a & 0x626 who collectively lost $370k from signing transactions on malicious phishing sites operated by monkey drainer such as the ones below. pic.twitter.com/HRwmP08UWn

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 25, 2022

The examples of malicious online platforms he cited attracted users with fake airdrops currently in the spotlight of projects like Aptos and RTFKT.

Another victim lost 14 NFTs, including tokens from top collections BAYC and CloneX, as well as 36,000 USDC. The total value of stolen assets was about $150,000, noted ZachXBT.

According to him, ‘fortunately,’ some transactions were rejected by the network, as the scammer addresses had been flagged.

4/ Victim 0x626 held over ~$6.2m worth of crypto at the time but managed to only lose $220k.

Luckily they rejected the other transactions.

Chainabuse Report:https://t.co/XqHibeBAxU pic.twitter.com/LDotXCziYf

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 25, 2022

The total amount stolen by the group exceeds $3.5 million and is rising by the day, the expert noted.

\”Please be extra diligent before visiting unknown sites, connecting your wallet, and signing transactions,\” urged the expert.

6/ Please be extra diligent before visiting unknown sites, connecting your wallet, and signing transactions.

Am still away on holiday for another week or so but wanted to get this post out as my bot notifications have been blowing up from this.

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 25, 2022

According to Chainalysis, October 2022 broke an all-time high in the amount of cryptocurrency stolen by hackers.