Blockchain detective ZachXBT just exposed another set of hackers who used a social engineering scam to steal over $240 million in Bitcoin from a wealthy victim.
The investigator claims that his own efforts together with the blunder of the criminals have led to their own downfall.
Scammed for 4000 BTC
In mid-August, the scammers targeted a single creditor to Genesis - the institutional Bitcoin trading desk that went bankrupt in early 2023.
The scammers first pretended to be Google support using a spoofed phone number and gained access to the victim's personal accounts. They later called the victim again pretending to be Gemini support, warning the victim that their accounts were hacked.
They then prompted the victim to reset his two-factor authentication and send his Gemini funds to a compromised wallet. The scammers also fooled the victim into downloading the remote desktop application AnyDesk, which let them see the victim's screen and view his private key via Bitcoin Core.
In celebration of their success, the hackers recorded their audio and screens.
Accidental slipup
But their haughtyness ultimately led to their own demise, as the very video recording of their discord was the concrete evidence they revealed their own identities.
One of the three main culprits who went by the name Wiz was identified as Veer Chetal. Similarly, his friend Light also leaked his full name, Aakaash, on the discord video recording. The last culprit, who went by the name of Greavys, was Malone Lam. He was also the mastermind of the crime, spending much of his stolen money on luxury cars, nightclubs and giving Birkin bags to girls.
Arrest of Malone and friends
Both Malone and his co-conspiritor, Jeandiel Serrano , were arrested on the 19th September. They each face one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
Over million of their stolen funds have been seized with help from Binance, and $500,000 has been returned back to the victim.
An indictment of the case against both individuals was unsealed later on Thursday.