Social Engineering Attack That Caused $243M Damage Exposed By ZachXBT

Key Points:

• Three individuals executed a sophisticated theft of $243 million in Bitcoin by using a social engineering attack.
• The attackers gained access to the victim’s accounts by posing as Google and Gemini support and used AnyDesk to extract private Bitcoin keys.

Three individuals made off with $243 million from a Genesis creditor through a social engineering attack in August.

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Three Individuals Orchestrate $243 Million Bitcoin Theft Using Social Engineering Attack

According to blockchain investigator ZachXBT, the social engineering attack took place on 19 August 2024, in which the suspects masqueraded themselves as tech support to breach the personal and exchange accounts of the victim.

The attackers-identified as Greavys (Malone Iam), Wiz (Veer Chetal), and Box (Jeandiel Serrano)-had initiated the attack by impersonating Google support using a spoofed phone number.

The hackers, after that, spoofed Gemini support and convinced the victim that his exchange account had been compromised, asking him to reset his two-factor authentication. After the victim fulfilled the request, the attackers manipulated the transfer of 4,064 Bitcoins valued at $243 million into wallets under their control.

In furtherance of this, they convinced the victim to install the remote desktop tool AnyDesk to exploit the incident further. Using the access gained, attackers accessed the victim’s screen and extracted private keys from the Bitcoin Core wallet.

Crypto Funds Stolen and Dispersed Immediately on Multiple Exchanges

According to Blockchain data, the hack happened at 4:05 A.M. UTC when 4,064 Bitcoins were rapidly transferred to more than 15 exchanges. These funds were then almost immediately transferred to various other cryptocurrencies, including but not limited to Litecoin, Ethereum, and Monero, in an attempt to obfuscate the trail.

Among the transaction hashes, a private video showing attackers celebrating upon receiving $238 million provided hard-won evidence for the investigation conducted by ZachXBT.

ZachXBT is a blockchain detective and analyst working on the social network X. He has experience exposing fraudsters in the crypto market and is often referred to as “Conan” because his extraordinary skills and way of thinking have investigated and solved more than 200 fraud cases worth tens of millions of dollars.