The investor shared his story of being a victim of a $100k crypto hack.
Although in theory, crypto users can protect themselves from nefarious actors in the crypto space by covering all bases and avoiding dubious communications, one investor shared his story of an incident that resulted in a loss of over $100,000 despite his best efforts to protect his funds.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Mathias Mende, founder of the Dubai Blockchain Center and founder of social proof project Bonus, recounted his experience after losing his property to a hacker.
Funds flowed in secret
On June 25, Mende reported the loss of over $100,000 in crypto assets and the Solana Name Service (SNS) domains “mende.sol” and “bonuz.sol”. He warned his followers about the many bad actors in the crypto space.
He said, “I don't know how Mende got into trouble.” CryptoInvestor claims to have high security measures in place and never click on any suspicious links. He emphasized that the crypto investor does not hold his genealogy digitally.
Mende explained that he participated in the Solana (SOL) token presale and felt good about the investment. He told Cointelegraph that after a few days, his wallet was empty. The hacker initially sent 320 SOL tokens worth about $46,000.
However, Mande said that when the attacker found out that other tokens were in the wallet, they sent some of the SOL tokens back to be used as gas and then emptied the wallet entirely. In total, the estimated value of the damages is $100,000.
Mende said he was devastated to learn that their money was gone. He explained.
“I thought my heart was going to stop. I slapped myself to wake up because I thought I might be asleep, but it was absolutely true.”
The investor said that if this had happened to them before, they would have been worried, but now they chose to focus on the present and try to do what they can.
Mende was surprised by what happened, considering his long-standing commitment to Web 3 security. In the year In 2023, Bonus introduced a blockchain-based solution designed to combat social identity theft as part of its social media identity verification project.
“I'm not knocking any funny links. Because I am very reliable, I do not associate the bag with any funny things. I used the Brave browser,” he added.
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The victim insists that the hackers return the money
Mende said he has reported the matter to the Dubai Cyber Crime Unit to ensure that the crypto exchanges can block the funds once they are transferred to their platforms.
He also mentioned that he committed the crime in collaboration with forensic experts, although his identity has not yet been identified.
“We know exactly where the coins are and the good thing is that if the cyber crime unit confirms that the hackers are in the UAE, they will be arrested immediately.”
The investor urged the hackers to return the money or face legal action. “This money is always wanted and always comes back to you. That's blockchain. Please return the money in two days, I will forgive you and I will not take any legal action,” Mende posted on X.
Despite the warning, the hacker did not respond to the post.
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