2023-8-25 21:20 |
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was duped out of almost $55,000 in crypto by a con artist. This bold theft used a special mix of surveillance, airdropping, and deception.
The US Department of Justice’s DEA division primarily focuses on reducing the movement of illegal drugs into and out of the country. However, this most recent occurrence has brought to light operational flaws. Notably, this isn’t the first time the DEA has experienced a compromise of this nature. In May, the organization reported losing cryptocurrency valued at more than $500,000.
How did the scammer pull it out?The scammer started by carefully monitoring the DEA’s blockchain address until the DEA started a forfeiture operation, wiring a test amount of $45.36 to the US Marshals Service.
The scammer captured the transaction information and used it to build a clever scheme. They sent crypto to the DEA from a crypto address that mirrored that of the Marshals Service. The fake crypto address replicated the first five and last four digits of the original Marshal’s address.
The DEA fell for the trick and transferred $50,000 to the fake crypto address.
Attempts to recover the stolen cryptoThe Marshals Services was, however, quick to notice the fraud and immediately informed the DEA, which moved swiftly and contacted Tether to freeze the transaction. But unfortunately, it was too late since the funds had already found their way out.
The DEA didn’t give up, it sought the assistance of the FBI to trade the funds which had since been converted. The investigations led the two organizations to an Ethereum wallet address. Further, two Binance accounts suspected of funding the scammer’s Ethereum network transaction fees were also identified, although the true identity of the scammer remains unknown.
The theft served as a stark reminder of the extent to which modern-day hackers go to steal funds from the ever-evolving crypto space. It underscores the importance of caution even for formidable organizations like DEA.
The post Scammer steals over $50k in crypto from the DEA appeared first on Invezz.
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