Scammer gained access to wallets with help of phishing websites
In the past 24 hours, “Monkey Drencher”, one of the most popular scammers in the NFT and crypto industry, stole around $1 million, or 700 ETH, from various wallets. The two biggest victims are wallets ending in 0x02a and 0x626, which collectively lost $370,000.
The main instrument used by the scammer is phishing. Technically, blockchain and noncustodial wallets remain safe and sound and the only way of getting access to funds stored in them.
The most common way to access NFTs is through phishing links. Users typically receive malicious content in their email, proceed to a link and then type in data sensitive enough for hackers to access their wallets.
Luckily, some transactions were rejected by the network, thanks to the fact that Drainer’s wallets have been marked and are now rejected by the majority of validators. ZachXBT issued a warning about the method used by the scammer.
The only way to protect funds, users should avoid visiting unknown sites that allow them to connect their wallets and sign transactions of any kind. Even a transaction resembling a simple transfer can become a key to NFTs or other assets contained in the wallet.
Two of the biggest examples were phishing websites covered as AirDrop pages of popular projects like Aptos and RTFKT. Thanks to the hype around Aptos, users were looking for a way to increase their APT holdings by getting some free tokens. After proceeding to the website and entering their wallet’s address and signing transactions, scammers had access to their funds.
It is not clear whether Drainer has access to any other wallets, so new fraudulent transactions may appear on the network in the future.
