Bitcoin, Ethereum worth $1.8 million stolen in a phishing incident on a fake search website

• A user was phished by a fake imtoken url on a search website, losing Bitcoin and Ethereum worth $1.8 million.
• The suspected attacker address 34uE...PjNm received approximately 63 BTC ($1.69 million) from the victim address 3Hnx...8CZN transferred on October 13.
• As phishing attacks become more sophisticated, investors should be careful when searching for phishing links on websites.

Phishing has become a tempestuous topic in the cryptocurrency industry, with numerous reports of attacks on different ecosystems. Seemingly, the issue’s prevalence has gotten so severe that users are now searching for phishing links online, possibly to crosscheck related stories.

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Bitcoin and Ethereum worth $1.8 million stolen

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) the two leading cryptocurrencies on metrics of market capitalization were involved in a phishing incident on October 13, after a holder searched for a fake imToken url on a fake website.

The fake imtoken website swindled Bitcoin and Ether worth $1.8 million from the user’s address (3Hnx...8CZN), sending 63 BTC tokens worth approximately $1.69 million to another address (34uE...PjNm), likely their own, Arkham Intelligence, a powerful tool for deanonymizing the blockchain shows the transaction history.

Arkham Intelligence

With phishing attacks becoming increasingly sophisticated, it is imperative that users remain vigilant when URLs are concerned. This is especially when financial transactions or sensitive information is concerned. Using trusted sources is critical with a double emphasis on never clicking on suspicious links.

Barely done with the first half of October and almost five ecosystems have fallen victim to exploits. After the attack on Balancer V2 pools in August and a subsequent exploit on the same network’s frontend on September 20, revelations that many crypto enterprises are vulnerable to subdomain/domain hijacking made headlines, citing Doman Name System (DNS) attacks. Galxe, a web3 community platform was also attacked on October 6.

As of October 10, up to 11 Binance accounts had lost almost $450,000 to scammers within a two-week span following phishing attacks, according to Hong Kong police reports, which urged investors to trade using licensed cryptocurrency exchange platforms in the region for better protection.

Before this report, FXStreet also reported an attack on the Beluga Protocol, with the decentralized exchange, which operates as a multichain stableswap to facilitate cross-chain swaps, losing almost 110 ETH, worth almost $170,000.  

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