I got scammed and lost 26 ETH / ~$100,000. In need of a Christmas miracle.
3 min read
On morning of December 6, I logged into my Metamask wallet and saw that all my ETH was transferred out to an unknown wallet. My Metamask wallet is on a computer that I use only for crypto transactions, and my seed phrase is not stored anywhere digitally. I immediately checked etherscan to see what had happened.
My wallet:
https://etherscan.io/address/0x69ac7d9d794cbbd9632e8d917a180462885c390d
Scammer’s wallet:
https://etherscan.io/address/0x829e1d3b535e08960dae4aa9c06e2b13659dfe21
Upon confirming my ETH was stolen, I knew what went wrong. The night before, I was playing a crypto game called Town Star. The game allows for scripts to automate some of the actions in the game. I searched around and came across this YouTube channel that promoted a link to such a script.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSc6fSgFbBc (now deactivated by YouTube)
I downloaded the script, and in a lapse of judgement, I ran it without doing enough due diligence or have my spider senses go off. It immediately triggered my anti-virus and the file was quarantined and removed. I had a quick thought to reformat my computer right then, but it was late, and I went to sleep. Once I found out my ETH was stolen the next day, I scoured the internet to figure out what to do next.
File local police report (report approved) Submit IC3.gov internet crime report Keep close tab on scammer’s wallet Learn about how to notify exchanges once the stolen ETH moves
I had a mining payout that was scheduled to payout that same day. I sat in front of my computer all day to move the last bit out before the scammer could do so. A day after, I was contacted by a Secret Service agent who had seen my IC3.gov report. Here’s our correspondence below:
Since then, I’ve been waiting for a response back. Safe to say I went through all the emotions of fear, anger, shame, denial, grief, and acceptance. My wife and son gave me a lot of comfort in the past 2 weeks. I felt like I had failed them. My family is absolutely devastated by this incident as this was a big investment for us to mine the ETH. But I’m grateful to know that we have the strength to carry on even if the money never comes back.
I know now the dangers of having a hot wallet. Previously when I started mining, I went for the quick and cheapest solution. As my mining continued, I neglected to understand how to secure my assets and didn’t take the necessary actions to do that. And while I’ve come to terms that the ETH will 99.9% never come back, I stumbled across u/anonymizeme post recently, and it gave me some hope. Our family is praying for a Christmas miracle. Appreciate any guidance and support. Merry Christmas everyone!
submitted by /u/desperatecryptodad
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