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A blockchain detective under the pseudonym ZachXBT reported a case of theft of LTC and BTC coins from a hardware wallet. The user lost assets worth $282 million, but the wallet itself was not hacked – the attackers gained access to cryptocurrencies using social engineering.
According to ZachXBT, the incident occurred on January 11 at about 2:00 Moscow time. The attackers tricked the user into signing a malicious transaction. The hacker managed to withdraw 2.05 million LTC and 1,459 BTC from the hardware wallet. The blockchain detective emphasizes that even the use of hardware wallets cannot completely protect the owner of cryptocurrencies from various fraudulent schemes.
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After receiving the funds, the hacker began converting them into the anonymous cryptocurrency Monero through various services. This even led to a noticeable, albeit short-term, increase in the XMR rate. Also, some bitcoins were moved to other networks, including Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple. For this purpose, the Thorchain cross-chain liquidity protocol was used.
ZachXBT provided the addresses of the wallets to which the funds were withdrawn:
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bc1qluxw46r55wf3dnk9c652vrt4duadm3hpuktf86
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bc1qpsmh26ja0fzzf286zulmt9eywujc2pggj40wzm
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ltc1qly43c2prj4c2e85dcspzpjd36jnapnenldnr70
Phishing attacks on users of various hardware wallets are not uncommon. For example, in October, Trezor wallet owners received letters about “quantum attacks.”
