CertiK drops findings on alleged scammer who stole $1M in crypto

Potential evidence linking an anonymous scammer to a Canadian group was highlighted by blockchain security firm CertiK in a report sent to Cointelegraph; however, the company has so far failed to confirm the name or identity of the perpetrator(s). 

On Aug. 16, CertiK released its findings from its investigation of a pseudonymous crypto scammer known as “Faint.” According to CertiK, the alleged scammer has been active since 2022, and the community has lost at least $1 million from their actions.

The security firm identified several Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains linked to Faint, including faintxbt.eth, comefindme.eth, thanksfortheseed.eth, onchainkitten.eth and hzontop.eth.

CertiK also highlighted that there have been links that established Faint’s connection to another alleged scammer known as “Soup.” On July 17, on-chain researcher ZachXBT published an investigation on Soup and said that the hacker was responsible for stealing millions in assets after attacking Discord servers by pretending to be employees of the media platform.

1/ An investigation into the Canadian phishing scammer known as Soup (Dan) who has helped steal millions in assets by attacking the Discord servers of projects like @Orbiter_Finance @PikaProtocol pic.twitter.com/EtD5FMiG4R

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) July 17, 2023

According to CertiK, the anonymous scammer often taunted projects after compromising their Discord servers. After a Discord hack in 2022, Faint posted a picture displaying a watch and showing the announcement of the nonfungible token (NFT) card game Cross The Ages that their Discord was compromised. 

CertiK believes that the watch shown by Faint in the post in 2022 is similar to a watch that surfaced on ZachXBT’s investigation of a scammer known as “Madman.” CertiK believes that the watch is a possible match to the one shown by Faint in the previous post.

Related: Zunami Protocol confirms stablecoin pools attacked, $2.1M loss estimated

Despite the findings, the blockchain security firm still was unable to determine the actual names or identities of the hackers. The company said that Faint still continues to be a threat to the community and encouraged community members to protect themselves against potential wallet drainer attempts.

Within the report, CertiK recommended applications such as Wallet Guard and Pocket Universe, which can alert users to connections with wallet drainers. The company noted that users can also take precautions by verifying addresses and making sure that any approvals they sign are not from recognized phishing addresses.

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