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Someone pretending to be the famous crypto trader Ansem (@blknoiz06) on X stole over $2.6 Million worth of Solana tokens (SOL) by replying to messages.
Scammers are always looking for opportunities to deceive people, regardless of whether the market is doing well or not. Recently, as the market entered a correction phase amid BTC’s dream run, a new scam was discovered by crypto investigator ZachXBT.
How The Scam Took Place
Over the weekend, ZachXBT discovered an attack in which unsuspecting victims were defrauded. An impostor account under the username @blfnoiz06 posed as the renowned crypto trader Ansem (@blknoiz06 on X) and managed to steal almost $3 Million.
An account impersonating @blknoiz06 phished >$2.6M today just by replying to each of his posts taking advantage of the recent meme coin craze.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) March 16, 2024
The largest single victim lost ~$1.2M.
Theft address
BUYgBfavHoGbfGYseyTWpzqKNeeYFjoJsgxiQcH4in4v pic.twitter.com/ZKcoh5vaOs
According to ZachXBT, the impersonating account under the username @blfnoiz06 replied to Ansem’s X posts promoting a presale link that redirected users to a wallet drainer.
The scammer under the username @blfnoiz06 would announce under each post the upcoming “launch his token” $BULL, and presale participants were required to send a minimum of 1 SOL and a maximum of 3 SOL. The scammer responded to one of Ansem’s posts in which he claimed that he did not launch coins. It is worth noting that the biggest victim of the scam lost SOL worth $1.2 Million.
When asked whether these were real victims or scammers using stolen tokens, ZachXBT confirmed that several victims, including the largest one, had messaged him to inform him of the scam.
The Growing Crypto Scams
Crypto users must always be wary of the links they engage with and ensure they have taken enough security measures to safeguard their funds. In February, MicroStrategy’s X account was breached, which subsequently led to the theft of approximately $440,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
Phishing scams involving influential figures in the crypto community have increased recently, despite not being a new tactic. Impersonators have been detected trying to prey on crypto users and take advantage of prevailing trends, such as the meme coin frenzy. Conversely, scammers target various personalities and projects, from virtual artists to L2 NFT-focused blockchains and liquid re-staking protocols.
The recent launch of the Solana-based meme coin Slerf saw impersonators create an account pretending to represent the team behind the project. Nonetheless, the accidental burn of the Liquidity pool (LP) and Presale airdrop SLERF tokens resulted in the loss of over $10 Million raised by presale participants.
Despite more phishing victims in February than in January, the overall amount stolen was less than the previous month. Moreover, February witnessed a noteworthy reduction in the number of victims who lost over $1 Million. Furthermore, in recent months, Compound Finance, Rocket Pool, Blockchain Capital, and even Vitalik Buterin have also had their X accounts infiltrated by crypto phishers.
Summary
ZachXBT discovered a fraudulent attack that targeted unsuspecting victims. An impostor account posed as the renowned crypto trader Ansem and managed to steal almost $3 Million. Phishing scams have increased recently. Scammers target various personalities and projects to prey on crypto users and take advantage of current trends.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions stated by the author or any people named in this article are for informational purposes only. They do not establish financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading in stocks, cryptos, or other related indexes comes with a risk of monetary loss.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
