Friend.tech wallet hit with phishing scam as trader loses 22 ETH portfolio

A cryptocurrency trader with username @yyctrader1 recently fell victim to a sophisticated phishing scam, resulting in the loss of his entire 22 ETH portfolio. The scam was first reported by PeckShieldAlert, which revealed that @yyctrader1's Friend.tech wallet was compromised. 

Friend.tech scammer transferred funds from Base 

A Friend.tech wallet containing 22 ETH, which comes to a market value of over $34,800, was compromised after a trader fell victim to a scammer. The perpetrator has reportedly transferred the stolen funds from Base to Ethereum using a bridge called Orbiter. Some of the ill-gotten gains have also been deposited into cryptocurrency exchange Binance, PeckShieldAlert said. 

@yyctrader1 said on X, "My 22 ETH portfolio was nuked to 0." The trader went on to describe how he was lured into the scam unfolded by a hacker pretending to be from FriendMEX.  

As per his account, they shared common servers, which seemed to create a sense of trust. As per the screenshots shared by the trader, the individual behind the scam used the name Charlie (FM). Charlie had nine mutual servers with @yyctrader1 which sparked the trader's interest in a suggested sponsorship collaboration.

A few hours after the initial contact, a 'colleague' of the scammers reached out, expressing interest in having a call with @yyctrader1. 

"During the call, they got me to click on a link to check out their product," @yyctrader1 admitted. The trader confirmed that he did not sign the transaction using his digital wallet, but "just clicked on a link" on the same browser as his wallet. 

Phishing link drains out Ethereum 

The scammers maintained a friendly demeanor during the conversation, with one of them having an Asian accent and the other sounding American. They even went so far as to schedule a follow-up call for the next day, the trader said. Immediately after concluding the call, the scammers started transferring ETH out of @yyctrader1's wallet. At the time of writing, the scammer's Etherscan wallet shows a balance of 9.6 ETH valued at $15,200.

@yyctrader1 has reached out to Binance for assistance as per his X account. 

Friend.tech launched with much fanfare in August as a decentralized social network on the Base Network. Recently, the decentralized platform added a Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) feature for an additional layer of security. But, phishing attacks aimed at deceiving individuals remain a concern across markets.