in the letter
- Podcast host Eric Savics lost $ 113,000 worth of Bitcoin after downloading a fake app from the Google Chrome store.
- He posted an emotional Twitter video asking the scammers to return his money.
- The CEOs of Binance and CoinCorner have since offered to blacklist the phishing address.
Binance CEO has offered to help a podcast host who lost their Bitcoin savings to a phishing scam.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao responded to one emotional plea on Twitter from entrepreneur and moderator of the “Protocol Podcast”, Eric Savics, the lost 12 Bitcoin – valued at around $ 113,000 – in a hardware wallet phishing attack.
Zhao responded to Savics’ video on Twitter, viewed over 106,000 times, in which he said he regretted the loss and that Binance “would blacklist this receiving address”.
I am sorry to hear of your loss. Ask the team to blacklist this receiving address.
If you can provide details on how phishing works, it will help others too.
– CZ Binance 🔶🔶🔶 (@cz_binance) June 13, 2020
The CEO of the UK-based crypto exchange CoinCorner, Danny Scott, then followed, said his company would blacklist the address as well.
Savics posted a video on Twitter yesterday explaining that he lost his Bitcoin after downloading a malicious version of the KeepKey Bitcoin Wallet desktop app. He downloaded what he thought was the corresponding app on the hardware wallet – but it was a fake.
The app from the Google Chrome Store asked him for his recovery set and upon entering it, Savics’ bitcoin was stolen.
In the video, Savics grumpily admits that he is “not the most technical person” and “shouldn’t have fallen for what I fell for” before asking the scammers to return at least some of his crypto savings. He added that he had been saving since 2013 and “was so close to my goal and dream of owning an apartment”.
1 / On June 10th, all of my bitcoins were stolen from me in a hardware wallet phishing scam.
I built up my position over 7 years. I wanted to buy an apartment with it …
I know whoever has my BTC will probably never see this video.
Nonetheless, below is my plea: pic.twitter.com/7U56yHbSU2
– ericsavis (@ ericsavis1) June 12, 2020
Phishing attacks via fraudulent apps are becoming more common – in April Google REMOVED 49 fake Chrome extensions from the web store posing as cryptocurrency wallets.
ShapeShift crypto exchange, which operates the KeepKey wallet, last week warned such apps.
After the blacklist was announced, some criticized Zhao’s move. One user called it was a “terrible slippery slope” and asked, “What if the US government or the Chinese government comes down to tell the exchanges which addresses to blacklist?”
However, some Twitter users were touched by Savics’ video and have been using it ever since offered to donate Bitcoin to him.
Sent you a little BTC to help out because you seem like a really good guy 🙏🏽
– Nine to Five Guy (@ninetofiveguy) June 13, 2020
However, as phishing scams like this one become more common, the criminals behind the attack are unlikely to return the stolen funds anytime soon.
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