How Hackers Stole $500K in a Month

In his recent research, On chai investigator ZachXbt has revealed an elaborate phishing attack that saw a threat actor make about $500k in the last month after attacking more than 15 high-profile X accounts among them Kick, Cursor, Alex Blania, The Arena, Brett and others. The accounts were used to control meme coin scams by obtaining phishing email credentials.

Phishing Scheme Unveiled

In regards to this heist, the hackers mimicked the official emails of the X team and faked a copyright infringement to make sure the targets immediately rushed to buy the meme coins. People were enticed to go to fake pages where they were redirected to provide new passcodes for accounts, including two-factor authentication (2FA).

After the accounts were compromised, the attacker engaged in meme coin scams, correlating all 15 ATOs through a single shared deployer address. Funds stolen in these scams were then transferred across the Solana-Ethereum blockchain to make it harder for law enforcers to track down the assets.

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Security Recommendations

ZachXBT encouraged the users to rush with the account strengthening to minimise such risks. Key recommendations include:

• Avoid email reuse: Do not use one email address for different services.
• Implement strong 2FA: Use it instead of the SMS code 2FA for important accounts, resorting to a security key instead.
• Verify communications: Confirm the authenticity of all emails especially those in the name of official forums.

It’s important that the crypto community stays on the watch and continues fighting to put an end to such activities from scammers. In particular, it aligns well with the current state of security affairs, a solid defense is the only effective means against ever-burgeoning cyber threats.