Reddit user warns of a copy & paste exploit that stole his crypto

Published at: Aug. 26, 2020

A Reddit user operating under the name “seraf1990” warned of a copy & paste crypto scam that replaced a wallet address he copied from Coinbase with one belonging to scammers. According to seraf1990, he lost about $350 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) — money that he notes was meant to go towards his rent for next month.

The post explains that seraf1990 was attempting to cash out some BTC by sending it from Binance to his account on Coinbase. After copying the exchange’s Bitcoin wallet address, he pasted it into the appropriate field back on Binance and completed the transaction “without second thought.” It was only later that he realized the address had somehow been swapped.

This type of attack is fairly common, except for one crucial difference. When a bad actor swaps out your address for one of their own, the two keys are usually completely different from one another, making the exploit reasonably easy to spot. In seraf1990’s case, however, the first four digits of the two addresses were identical.

Compounding this issue was the fact that Coinbase only displayed the first few digits of the wallet on the user’s device. 

In the post, seraf1990 stated that the device used in the transaction was a Windows-powered PC. Some replies speculated that malware could be behind the crypto scam, though the method was never directly confirmed.

A similar incident was reported by Cointelegraph in June. Cybercriminals were reportedly impersonating an encrypted messaging service in order to steal Bitcoin via the copy & paste function.

Tags
Bitcoin
Cryptocurrencies
Hacks
Hackers
Cybercrime
Cybersecurity
Bitcoin Scams
Related Posts
Hackers Stole and Encrypted Data of 5 U.S. Law Firms, Demand 2 Crypto Ransoms
Hackers compromised five United States law firms and demanded two 100 Bitcoin (BTC) (over $933,000 at press time) ransoms from each firm: one to restore access to the data, one to delete their copy instead of selling it. According to data shared with Cointelegraph by cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, the hacker group — called Maze — already started publishing part of the data stolen from the aforementioned firms. Two of the five law firms were hacked within the 24 hours leading to Feb. 1. The hackers published the data on two websites that were shared with the author of this article, …
Bitcoin / Feb. 3, 2020
California Man Sues AT&T Over Loss of $1.8M and Crypto Accounts
California resident Seth Shapiro has filed a lawsuit against wireless service giant AT&T alleging that its employees helped to perpetrate a SIM-swap which resulted in the theft of over $1.8 million in total, including cryptocurrencies. The complaint filed on Oct. 17 claims that Shapiro is “a two-time Emmy Award-winning media and technology expert, author, and adjunct professor at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.” The lawsuit alleges that between May 16 and May 18 AT&T employees transferred access to Shapiro’s mobile phone to outside hackers: “AT&T employees obtained unauthorized access to Mr. Shapiro’s AT&T wireless account, viewed …
Cryptocurrencies / Oct. 20, 2019
Crypto’s recovery requires more aggressive solutions to fraud
It’s hardly an exaggeration to say that our industry is facing tough times. We’ve been in the midst of a “crypto winter” for some time now, with the prices of mainstays, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), tumbling. Likewise, monthly nonfungible token (NFT) trading volumes have fallen more than 90% since their multibillion dollar peak back in January of this year. Of course, these declines have only been exacerbated by the numerous black swan events rocking the crypto world, such as the FTX and Three Arrows Capital meltdowns. Taken together, it shouldn’t be a surprise that crypto is facing a …
Cryptocurrencies / Dec. 30, 2022
Don’t blame crypto for ransomware
Recently, gas has been a hot topic in the news. In the crypto media, it’s been about Ethereum miner’s fees. In the mainstream media, it’s been about good old-fashioned gasoline, including a short-term lack thereof along the East Coast, thanks to an alleged DarkSide ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline system, which provides 45% of the East Coast’s supply of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. In cases of ransomware, we generally see a typical cycle repeat: Initially, the focus is on the attack, the root cause, the fallout and steps organizations can take to avoid attacks in the future. Then, …
Technology / May 30, 2021
Kim Jong Un May Be Using Stolen Crypto to Offset Economic Fallout
North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, is reportedly backing a group of hackers. Their goal? Stealing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) using phishing scams. Sources indicate that the country has ramped up these efforts in an attempt to prevent a financial meltdown amid the COVID-19 crisis. A report published on May 13 by the U.K. Mirror claims that the Lazarus group, a hacking syndicate with alleged ties to the North Korean state, could be launching a cybercrime campaign of advanced persistent threat, or APT, attacks. Experts from Seoul-based firm, ESTsecurity, state that Lazarus is “increasingly engaging” in cybercrime activities in and out …
Bitcoin / May 14, 2020