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A bizarrely twisted tale unfolded yesterday in crypto’s underworld of decentralized finance (DeFi). The perpetrator of a multi-million dollar heist against a project called ZKLend (short for “zero knowledge proof lending”) subsequently lost those ill-gotten gains to a second phishing scam. The ouroboros started on February 11, 2025 when ZKLend lost 3,600 ether (ETH) to its hackers. Administrators begged them to return the funds and unfortunately, weeks went by with no news. ZKLend announced a $500,000 bounty for the arrest and return of funds, but still no luck. Then, on March 31, an on-chain chat between the hacker “Fake_Phishing927538” and ZKLend’s token deployer account revealed new, devastating news.  “​​I tried to move funds to tornado [cash] but I used a phishing website and all the funds have been lost,” Fake_Phishing927538 wrote to the ZKLend team.  “I am devastated. I am terribly sorry for all the havoc and losses caused. All the 2930 eth have bee...

The Official Trump price went ballistic and soared over 10,880% in the last 24 hours to trade at $10.01 as of 8:24 a.m. EST as degen investors pile into the crypto. The remarkable surge in the TRUMP price saw the meme coin’s fully diluted market soar to an eye-popping $21 billion within hours of its debut at 2:00 a.m. UTC.  TRUMP’s impressive performance comes after the token was promoted on the X account of US President-elect Donald Trump. But there are growing fears that the project might be a sophisticated scam. In the last year, several celebrities have seen their X accounts hacked to promote scam tokens that were deployed on the Solana blockchain through Pump.fun.  My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW. Go to https://t.co/GX3ZxT5xyq — Have Fun! pic.twitter.com/flIKYyfBrC — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2025 ...

The hype around Telegram clicker game Hamster Kombat quickly turned to gripes after the HMSTR token imploded on launch and players slammed the project’s airdrop. The HMSTR token slumped as much as 50% after listing on major crypto exchanges yesterday as frustration over the project erupted on social media platforms. “You gave me dust after 4 months,” said one X user while venting his frustration towards the airdrop . ” I am killing hamsters, rats, rabbits or anything that looks like a hamster.” HMSTR is trading at $0.006655 as of 10:07 a.m. EST, down 26% from its launch price. It has a market capitalization of $428 million, making it the 423rd biggest crypto, according to CoinMarketCap. Hamster Kombat Players Criticize The Team For HMSTR’s Unfair Distribution Hamster Kombat distributed 60 billion HMSTR tokens, which is 60% of the crypto’s supply, through multiple tier-...

A fake digital currency wallet Scam that mimics e-CNY, the Central Bank digital currency ( CBDC ) of China , is being shared across the country’s app stores, according to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.  The Chinese government warned social media users of a fake variation of the ‘Digital Yuan Test Version’ being listed on app stores.  The fake wallet reportedly uses ‘dividends’ to manipulate users into sharing the app while also directing them to ‘uncommon social tools’ capable of seizing user funds.  The app copies the e-CNY app’s logo, color scheme, and user interface but differs in its package name and version number. The government’s statement didn’t disclose exactly which app store the scam wallet is being listed on. The fake app (bottom) pictured with the legitimate e-CNY one. Authorities reportedly warned users to be wary of fake apps that rely on patriotism and use get-rich-quick messaging to lur...

A London builder who fraud ulently applied for a £50,000 ($62,000) Covid-19 loan before losing it all in a crypto investment Scam has been sentenced to almost two years in prison. As announced by the UK ’s Insolvency Service, 43-year-old L UK asz Nowak successfully applied for a £50,000 ($63,000) Bounce Back loan in October 2020, claiming his business had made £205,000 ($258,000) in the previous tax year. However, Nowak had actually turned over just £20,000 ($25,000). The Bounce Back scheme allows small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 ($2,500) and up to 25% of their turnover. Rather than spending the loan on financially supporting his business as intended, today’s press release revealed how Nowak chose to invest the funds into crypto via a third-party broker . However, the broker in question stole his funds, forcing him to declare bankruptcy in July 2021. TikTok ‘guru’ launders COVID loans with crypto, spoils girlfriend Read more: Hac...

Malicious actors have started targeting crypto victims on Telegram, luring them to believe they’re dealing with venture capital investors. Crypto scammers are distributing a malicious software impersonating legitimate venture capital (VC) investors on Telegram. In an X post on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023, Alexandre Masmejean, CEO of Showtime, a crypto marketplace for creators, said he was contacted by FBI agents from the Los Angeles department by phone, who strongly encouraged him to “turn off my WiFi, rotate my wallets, change all my passwords, move my files to a hard drive and entirely wipe out my compromised MacBook.” My experience with the FBI: a wake-up call to public-facing crypto people. “Hey, are you Alexandre Masmejean, CEO of Showtime Technologies, Inc? This is the FBI calling in from Los Angeles.” Last week I had a very strange call that surprised me so much I didn’t know whether I… pic.twitter.com/5TgkCcKfgr — Alex Masmej 🪙 (@AlexMasmej) December ...

Funds stolen in a prior exploit have reportedly been channeled into Tornado Cash, totalling an estimated 1,500 BNB now within the mixer. Deposits into Tornado Cash According to an Oct. 11 from Certik, an exploit occurred on BH Token (BlackHole token), resulting in an exploiter (0xFDb) acquiring $1.2 million USDT, which was later converted to BNB and deposited into Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based privacy tool. #CertiKSkynetAlert The BH Token exploiter has deposited stolen funds into @TornadoCash So far, 1,500 BNB has been deposited into the mixer On 11th October, Black Hole token was exploited for 1.2m USDThttps://t.co/d9ZC6o2YsQ — CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) October 19, 2023 Now, in a follow-up development dated Oct. 19, the malicious actor responsible for the theft has channeled stolen funds into Tornado Cash, has deposited a total of 1,500 BNB into the mixing service so far.  A subject of another alert Unfortunately, this is not the first time that Tornado Cas...