The cryptocurrency phishing scammer behind among the most high-profile and high-value Web3 thefts claims to have packed up store, saying it was “time to maneuver on to one thing higher.”
The scammer with the pseudonym Monkey Drainer posted to their Telegram channel on March 1 that they “might be shutting down instantly” and all “information, servers and units” 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 simple cash” and solely these “with the very best degree of dedication” ought to function a “massive scale cybercrime” outfit.
Monkey Drainer even really helpful a “flawless” different service to the one they as soon as provided, 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 March 1 that throughout the final day, Monkey Drainer’s pockets deposited round 200 Ether (ETH) price $330,000 into the crypto mixing service Twister Money, making an attempt to obscure their funds. There was 840 ETH, price $1.4 million, nonetheless of their major pockets.
#PeckShieldAlert Scammer #MonkeyDrainer, who runs theft schemes for a number of shoppers (a type of ‘scam-as-a-service’) introduced to close down their service
~200 $ETH has been transferred to Twister Money throughout the final 24 hours, whereas ~840 $ETH (~$1.4M) sits of their important tackle pic.twitter.com/1lg3KLRxhk— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 1, 2023
Blockchain safety agency CertiK additionally shared Monkey’s message on a March 1 tweet, saying the crypto wallet-draining equipment they provided 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 cost construction Monkey launched and have since copied
Beneath are just a few 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 price of cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens 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 price of crypto was misplaced to hacks, frauds, scams and rug pulls in 2022.
Probably one of many single most high-profile and high-value theft by a pockets drainer in current occasions 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 price of his private NFTs to the attacker.