Hackers Steal $243 Million in Bitcoin Scam

Blockchain detective ZachXBT has exposed another group of hackers who used a social engineering scam to steal over $240 million in Bitcoin from a wealthy victim.

The investigator said his efforts and the mistakes of the criminals themselves have already led to “multiple arrests and millions of dollars frozen.”

Scammed for 4000 BTC

In mid-August, scammers targeted just one Genesis creditor – the institutional Bitcoin trading desk that went bankrupt in early 2023.

The scammers first called the victim pretending to be Google support, using a fake phone number and gained access to the victim’s personal accounts. They then called the victim back pretending to be Gemini support, warning them that their accounts had been hacked.

They tricked the victim into resetting their two-factor authentication and sending their Gemini funds to a compromised wallet. Meanwhile, the scammers tricked the victim into downloading the AnyDesk remote desktop application, which allowed them to view the victim’s screen and view their private key via Bitcoin Core.

The hackers recorded their audio and screens as they celebrated the hack, which netted them 4,064 BTC worth $257 million at current prices.

“An initial trace showed that $243 million was split multiple ways between each party before the funds were quickly transferred to over 15 exchanges, immediately trading between Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Monero,” ZachXBT added.

Identify the culprits

The investigator linked the distribution of funds to the wallets of those involved in the theft. One of the three main culprits, known as “Wiz,” was identified as Veer Chetal after he mistakenly disclosed his full name during a screen share.

Chetal’s friend Light also revealed his real name, Aakaash, in a screen share. Greavys, whose real name is Malone Lam and who was tasked with finding information about the target in his mail, spent much of the stolen money on luxury cars, nightclubs and Birkin bags given to the girls.

Box (Jeandhil Serrano), the man who presented the victim as a representative of the Gemini exchange, also spent a large portion of his funds on luxury goods. However, ZachXBT said that both Box and Greavys had mistakenly linked their “dirty funds” tied to centralized exchanges to their funds that were supposed to be private on multiple occasions.

Last night, Box and Greavys were both arrested in Miami and Los Angeles. Over $1 million of their stolen funds were seized with the help of Binance, and $500,000 was returned to the victim.

The indictment against the two individuals was made public later Thursday.