As per the recent news posted by Scamsniffer on X, a sophisticated crypto scam caused a victim to lose $165,000 in $BLOCK and $DOLO crypto tokens. With a bit of a scammer's trick and the victim's unattentiveness cost him $165000. The scam takes place by signing approvals through which the fraudster gains access to the victim's assets. Read the full story in this article about what happened, the reasons, the consequences, and what notes a user should take from these incidents.
A recent crypto scam has resulted in a victim losing approximately $165,000 worth of tokens, specifically $BLOCK and $DOLO. The incident occurred after the victim unknowingly signed malicious "approve" and "increaseAllowance" signatures, which allowed scammers to drain their digital assets. This alarming event highlights the ongoing risks of phishing attacks and fraudulent signature requests within the DeFi space.
Source: RealScamSniffer X
The victim, identified by their Ethereum wallet address:
0xD9Dbf7115cA53840D3105ED0067168f8146aa893
Targeted by two scammers operating from addresses:
0x0BE1cED347B9CAe3a21FEb1E416813092b6DA144 & 0xeE027495ef4E54CcD2a2BC03560d900AA3d0329b.
The scammers used deceptive tactics to trick the victim into signing malicious "approve" and "increaseAllowance" transactions. Consequently, the scammers took possession of the assets of the victim and made unauthorized transfers. The stolen assets include 646,616 $BLOCK tokens, valued at approximately $137,339, and 117,805 $DOLO tokens, valued at $28,583. The Ethereum blockchain verified these transactions (confirmed via Etherscan) and showed the high degree of sophistication of the scam and blockchain records.
Source: X
In their attempts to communicate with DApps or yield farming platforms as fast as possible, many users can fail to notice the danger of approving requests. This is exploited by malicious actors who develop fake or phishing platforms to fool users into giving unlimited access to their tokens using an approve or increaseAllowance signature.
Moreover, the technical terms and nature of blockchain transactions can be confusing even to advanced users.
Attackers can apply social engineering and make-believe interfaces to resemble legitimate services, so that it is hard to tell the difference between real and fake transactions.
These vulnerabilities are further compounded by the fact that in decentralized finance, there is no centralized oversight. Therefore, once the scammer has acquired the signature of the victim, they are free to operate with relative impunity.
The direct effect of this scam is the loss of a lot of money by the victim. The loss of tokens worth more than $165,000 not only impacts the personal assets of the person but also undermines the idea of the DeFi platform's safety. These cases prevent new users from accessing blockchain technologies and may negatively affect the image of such fair projects as $BLOCK and $DOLO.
Source: X
On a larger scale, scams of this nature point to a dire necessity to not only educate users better about transaction security but also to ensure that wallet providers and DApps are taking more protective steps. It is up to users to be cautious, to pay close attention to each signature request, and not to make hasty decisions. It is also advised that wallet providers should put in place more warnings and protection to identify and stop malicious signature approvals.
Even if it’s not a big loss, it's important to take notes from such scam to prevent any huge mess. These scams forecast how a market with so many opportunities has loopholes as well, which can only be prevented with users' and investors' alertness. Earlier, a scammer waits 458 days for $900K, which says a lot about how frauds are getting very professional these days.
Sakshi Jain is a crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in industry research, financial analysis, and content creation. She specializes in producing insightful blogs, in-depth news coverage, and SEO-optimized content. Passionate about bringing clarity and engagement to the fast-changing world of cryptocurrencies, Sakshi focuses on delivering accurate and timely insights. As a crypto journalist at Coin Gabbar, she researches and analyzes market trends, reports on the latest crypto developments and regulations, and crafts high-quality content on emerging blockchain technologies.