Fearful of Arrest, WBTC Scammer Returns $71 Million in ETH
Fearful of Arrest, WBTC Scammer Returns $71 Million in ETH
The scammer who stole wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) on May 3, 2023, through address poisoning has returned the stolen funds following negotiations.
Scammer Returns Funds in ETH
The scammer, who stole WBTC using an address poisoning attack, has returned the stolen assets valued at $71 million in ETH (approximately Rp1.1 trillion) on May 12, 2024. Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain detailed the incident in a post on X on May 13, 2024.
The SlowMist team released a report on this incident three days ago, tracking several IP addresses of the attacker, possibly from Hong Kong (though the use of a VPN has not been ruled out). "After that, the attacker responded to the crypto owner and returned all the funds," Lookonchain's post stated.
No Initial Intention to Return Assets
The return of the funds came shortly after on-chain security firm SlowMist published an analysis indicating the scammer's IP address might be based in Hong Kong. Although all the stolen funds were returned, on-chain transactions before this event suggest that the scammer did not intend to return the funds initially. This indicates the scammer is not a white hat hacker.
After receiving the stolen funds, the scammer quickly exchanged 1,155 WBTC for approximately 23,000 ETH, a common step for malicious hackers to launder stolen funds through privacy protocols and crypto mixing services like Tornado Cash. On May 8, 2024, the scammer began dispersing the funds to over 400 crypto wallets, ultimately spreading them across more than 150 separate wallets before returning the assets. If the intention was only to test the attack strategy as a white hat, such actions would not have been necessary.
Conclusion
The return of $71 million in ETH by the WBTC scammer highlights the potential impact of investigative pressure and the fear of arrest on cybercriminals. Despite initially dispersing the stolen funds across numerous wallets and utilizing laundering techniques, the scammer ultimately decided to return the assets following detailed analyses and tracking by blockchain security firms. This incident underscores the importance of robust on-chain security measures and the efficacy of blockchain analytics in combating cybercrime. The scammer's actions reveal that the initial intention was not to return the funds, confirming their malicious intent rather than a white hat hacking endeavor.
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