The cryptocurrency phishing scammer behind a few of the most high-profile and high-value Web3 thefts is claiming to have packed up store and is “shifting on to one thing higher.”
The scammer by the pseudonym Monkey Drainer posted to their Telegram channel on Mar. 1 that they “might be shutting down instantly” and all “information, servers and gadgets” associated to the drainer “might be destroyed instantly” and it “won’t return.”
The scammer even gave recommendation to budding “younger cyber criminals” saying they shouldn’t “lose themselves within the pursuit of straightforward cash” and solely these “with the best degree of dedication” ought to function a “giant scale cybercrime” outfit.
Monkey Drainer even advisable a “flawless” various service to the one they as soon as supplied named “Venom Drainer” and pointed to a Telegram account for the service that was created solely a day earlier than Monkey’s announcement.
Blockchain safety agency PeckShield tweeted on Mar. 1 that inside the final day, Monkey Drainer’s pockets deposited round 200 Ether (ETH) value $330,000 into the crypto mixing service Twister Money, making an attempt to obscure their funds. 840 ETH value $1.4 million was nonetheless of their major pockets.
#PeckShieldAlert Scammer #MonkeyDrainer, who runs theft schemes for a number of shoppers (a form of ‘scam-as-a-service’) introduced to close down their service
~200 $ETH has been transferred to Twister Money inside the final 24 hours, whereas ~840 $ETH (~$1.4M) sits of their essential deal with pic.twitter.com/1lg3KLRxhk— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 1, 2023
Blockchain safety agency CertiK additionally shared Monkey’s message on a Mar. 1 tweet, saying the crypto wallet-draining equipment they supplied is known to take a 30% “fee” of funds stolen funds from others’ use of the software program.
Pockets-draining kits from different suppliers have copied the mannequin, and CertiK pointed to different distributors already reporting an uptick in requests since Monkey Drainer introduced the shutdown.
3/ Pockets drainer distributors have famous the fee construction Monkey launched and have since copied
Under are a couple of examples that we’ve seen: pic.twitter.com/i62aU5t2pv
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) February 28, 2023
Monkey Drainer is known to have operated since late 2022 and is estimated to have stolen as much as $13 million value of cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) since that point.
Associated: Monkey Drainer-linked scammers probably uncovered after an on-chain quarrel
Different copycat phishing scammers and wallet-draining kits have stolen way more. A report from Web3 bug bounty platform Immunefi revealed $3.9 billion value of crypto was misplaced to hacks, frauds, scams and rug pulls in 2022.
Presumably one of many single most high-profile and high-value theft by a pockets drainer in latest instances was the January assault on Kevin Rose, the co-founder of the Moonbirds NFT assortment.
Rose’s pockets was drained after he authorised a malicious signature on a phishing web site that transferred over $1.1 million value of his private NFTs to the attacker.
