In a surprising turn of events, a phishing scammer has returned nearly $9.3 million to a victim after stealing $24 million from them last September.
First reported by Scam Sniffer on July 13, the scammer used the Dai (DAI) stablecoin to return the funds in two transactions last week.
On July 8, the scammer returned $5.23 million, followed by another $4.04 million on July 13 at 12:06 pm UTC, according to Etherscan data.
This happened 10 months after the victim lost $24.2 million in a phishing scam on September 6, 2023, which included 9,579 Lido Staked Ether (stETH) and 4,850 Rocket Pool (rETH) tokens.
The victim unknowingly allowed the scammer access to their tokens by signing “Increase Allowance” transactions, according to Scam Sniffer’s report at the time.
An ERC-20 token feature called “allowance” lets a third party spend tokens on behalf of the owner.
Crypto market data platform CoinMarketCap and other industry experts have warned that this feature can be exploited. Malicious developers might use it to deploy harmful smart contracts and scam users.
Phishing Scam Statistics and Victim Impact
The recent return of $9.3 million is about 38.4% of the stolen funds based on their value on September 6. However, the 14,429 staked Ether would be worth $47.5 million at today’s prices.
On-chain data shows the returned Dai came from an address labeled Railgun Relay, an intermediary for a privacy protocol, before being transferred to the victim.
There’s no explanation for the sudden transfers, and the scammer didn’t leave any message. After the transfer, the scammer’s wallet still has over $3 million in funds, according to Etherscan data.
Nearly 99% of the scammer’s remaining funds are in the METAGALAXY LAND (MEGALAND) token from the BNB Chain.
In 2023, phishing scammers stole almost $300 million worth of crypto from 324,000 victims, according to Scam Sniffer’s Wallet Drainers Report.
Inferno Drainer and MS Drainer were the top phishing scammers that year, stealing $81 million and $59 million, respectively.
Pink Drainer was another major scammer, stealing over $85 million before shutting down in May.
