Investor Loses Over $3 Million in Phishing Attack with Fake Tokens
Date: 2025-08-07 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: BUSINESS
The Lookonchain analytics platform reported a new case of a major cryptocurrency theft as a result of a phishing attack. An unknown hacker stole $3.05 million in aETHUSDT tokens by deceiving an investor through a fake transaction.
The incident began with the victim receiving 33,839 aEthUSDT tokens from an unknown sender. Experts suggest that this was done intentionally - the attacker could have used them as bait, creating the impression that it was a regular airdrop. This forced the wallet owner to sign a transaction, which in fact gave the fraudster full control over his assets.
Once the transaction was confirmed, the hacker withdrew 3,087,821 aETHUSDT tokens, equivalent to $3.05 million, from the victim's wallet. The funds were sent to two different addresses: first, 463,173 USDT went to the previously identified phishing address Fake_Phishing, and the remaining $2.6 million was transferred to another wallet, previously unrelated to the fraudulent activity. After that, the main amount was scattered across multiple addresses and eventually exchanged for 730 ETH, which were then staked.
Cases of this kind are not uncommon. For example, in August last year, one of the investors lost $55.47 million in DAI tokens, also as a result of signing a malicious transaction. At that time, the funds were withdrawn from the Maker protocol and quickly converted to ETH in the attacker's new wallet.
Lookonchain experts strongly recommend that crypto owners be extremely careful when interacting with transactions, especially if they are accompanied by "gifts" in the form of unknown tokens. One careless action can result in a complete loss of funds.
In addition, a new phishing campaign called JSCEAL has become known. As part of this scheme, scammers create fake versions of popular crypto applications, including Binance, MetaMask, and Kraken. Users who do not recognize the substitution risk handing over control of their assets to the attackers.
Phishing remains one of the most serious threats in the crypto space, and even experienced investors can become its victims if they do not exercise due diligence.
