Poetic Justice: Scammer Lost $5M in Bitcoin After Being Targeted by Ledger Thieves

According to Bitcoin Magazine, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis revealed that one of the major victims of a recent Ledger hardware theft was a scammer who lost nearly $5 million in bitcoin. Chainalysis reported that the individual lost over 60 bitcoins that had been amassed through a task scam, where victims were tricked into paying money under the guise of faking sales and reviews.

On September 22, the perpetrator moved these stolen funds into three separate Ledger addresses. Subsequently, on October 9, thieves emptied all three addresses into a single wallet, which was reported as containing stolen funds.

Ledger previously initiated an investigation after customers in South East Asia reported financial losses following purchases from a Malaysia-based reseller named CryptoBilis. According to Ledger, criminals installed hardware implants into devices to read user seed phrases and drain wallets, in what the company described as a sophisticated organized crime operation. While Ledger has not disclosed total losses, blockchain investigator Specter estimated the drained amount at $86 million. Ledger stated it is cooperating with law enforcement, and CryptoBilis has halted sales of Ledger products.