In an incident that thrilled the digital finance world, three hackers; Greavys (Malone ), Wiz (Veer Chetal), and Box (Jeandiel ) successfully defrauded a single victim of $243 million, through the use of social engineering coupled with technical internet skills.
The attack that occurred on August 19, 2024, was deeply investigated by onchain investigator ZachXBT and signified the ever-increasing threat posed to the crypto industry witnessing how these hackers both tricked and exploited the targeted firm’s technical vulnerabilities to their advantage.
How the attack unfolded
The hit got off on a very correct note with a phone call from the attackers: Fake Google Support. Apparently, they were able to call the victim using a fake phone number and thus influence his or her trust with the intention of sharing personal accounts.
Next, the criminals presented themselves as Gemini Support, and successfully swindle the victim into believing that the latter’s account had been compromised. In one of the most excellent ordinary social engineering attacks, the hackers were able to manipulate the victim into changing the 2FA reset and send the money to a limp wallet.
To continue controlling the victim, the hackers convinced him or her to download AnyDesk, which is a remote desktop software. From this, they got the victim’s private keys which sealed their access to these digital coins worth of about $243 million.
The movement and washing of the money
Once the hackers were able to control the funds, they separated the money and transferring it through various transactions in more than 15 exchanges. The funds were changed its position several times using Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and Monero to hide its source.
However, during one of the screenshare sessions by ZachXBT, Wiz whom used the screen name Veer Chetal committed the mistake of displaying his real name thereby boosting the spirits of the investigators.
Wiz’s accomplice was Light/Dark (Aakaash) who helped in the money laundering process, as they were also able to find his identity hence easily trace the money.
Lavish lifestyle with ill-gotten wealth
Greavys (Malone) buried the proceeds of the crime in as much as he started lavishing in wealth. He bought over 10 luxury cars and spent between $300, 000 and $500,000 a night partying in clubs L. A and Miami alone. This work is also adorned through excessive spending habits which could easily be traced by investigators through his social media posts.
Some people even took to sharing his location on social networks; often unbeknownst to their participation in pushing the police’s investigation forward.
Another person proved to be linked to the operation was Box (Jeandiel ), who posed as a Gemini exchange representative during the heit. He also utilized the same profile pictures in all the social platforms he registered for, thereby sinking himself deeper into the fraud.
Ongoing investigations and arrests
Due to joint efforts of blockchain researchers including CFInvestigators, ZeroShadow_io, and the Binance Security, over $9 million of the stolen money has been stopped from further use, with $500 k being returned to the victim already. This investigation resulted to arrest of both Greavys and Box in Miami beach and Los Angeles.
In this connection, authorities say that more assets are likely to be recovered and more people could be apprehended as the investigation goes on.
