This hacker stole $58 million in crypto through Google search

Web3's anti-fraud platform Fraud Sniffer has flagged phishing campaigns on Google and social media that have extorted millions of crypto from victims.

It was linked to ‘Wallet Drainer', a phishing campaign on Google Search and X Ads that cost more than 63,000 victims $58 million in 9 months, the article said.

Complex Methods Employed by Hackers in Crypto Theft

In a series on X (formerly Twitter), Scam Sniffer explains how the scam led to millions of lost crypto, which you'll see for the first time in March.

We first met them in March and the Slow Mist team shared their track with us in early April. Then at the end of April we saw it again in Google search ad phishing.

However, the anti-fraud platform has provided more details. Prominent blockchain researcher ZachXBT highlights the recent disclosure of nine phishing ads on X. More than half of these ads are directed to the typical wallet drain.

“A recent test of X ads in feed showed that 9 of the ads were phishing, and over 60% used this wallet drain,” he wrote.

He explained that hackers use regional targeting and page redirection techniques to bypass ad audits. This reportedly adds complexity to the review process, which allows malicious ads to be approved.

Additionally, it notes that phishing ads use redirects to appear legitimate. Similar to masquerading as official domains that lead to phishing sites.

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Crypto hacker activity has increased in recent times.

Recently, there have been more and more reports of sophisticated crypto scams.

On December 16, BeenCrypto reported that a trader of peer-to-peer trading platform NFT had fallen victim to a sophisticated hack. This led to millions of dollars worth of high-value non-fungible tokens (NFTs) being stolen.

The NFT platform confirmed the attack, revealing that “legacy smart contracts” were the hackers' entry point.

However, the company advises users to revoke any previously granted consent to these smart contracts.

Additionally, the original attacker left an official message on the blockchain.

He blamed another user for the NFT exploit and said the attack was “just to pick up leftover garbage.” Meanwhile, the hacker offers to return the tokens for ransom – 3 ETH per Bored Monkey and 0.6 ETH per Mutant Ape.

Read more: Crypto Social Media Scams: How to Stay Safe