A new scam-as-a-service called “Inferno Drainer” stole nearly $6 million from unsuspecting cryptocurrency users, according to scam detection company Web3 Scam Sniffer. Inferno Drainer allegedly advertises that it provides scammers with a ready-made code that allows them to steal cryptocurrency in exchange for 20% of the scammers’ cryptocurrency “loot”.
1/ Inferno Drainer, a scam vendor specializing in multi-chain scams, has stolen $5.9 million in assets from nearly 4,888 victims through over 689 phishing websites targeting popular projects.https://t.co/OEjdzHm2Ls
— Scam Sniffer (@realScamSniffer) May 19, 2023
1/ Inferno Drainer, a scam vendor specializing in multi-chain scams, stole assets worth $5.9 million from approximately 4,888 victims via over 689 phishing websites targeting popular projects.
The scam service was discovered by security enthusiast and Twitter pseudonym 0xSaiyanElite, who stumbled upon one of the promoters of the scam while browsing the Scam Sniffer Telegram channel. Sayan reported the scammers on the channel and the Security Service launched an investigation. They found a screenshot showing a $103,000 withdrawal transaction using a Permit2 exploit. Permit2 exploits are phishing scams that rely on a simplified version of the token approval process.
According to the scam sniffer, the screenshot showed the hash of the stolen transaction, which led the team to trace the transaction, which discovered the exploiter’s address. Scam sniffers then discovered that the address was linked to more than 689 phishing websites created since March 27, and had stolen $5.9 million from victims across various networks, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, and the BNB chain. Scam Sniffer created a Dune Analytics dashboard to reveal the data that validates this conclusion.
Reportedly, Inferno Drainer advertised its “service” to scammers in exchange for 20% of the profits. He also offered to build phishing sites for clients in exchange for 30%, but only for “good clients or those with great potential”.
Scams as a service have become a growing problem in the crypto community in recent months. ZachXBT discovered a similar service called “Monkey Drainer” in October. It extorted at least $1 million worth of ETH from users before shutting down in March.
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