On morning of December 6, I logged into my Metamask wallet and saw that all my ETH was transferred out to an unknown wallet. My Metamask wallet is on a computer that I use only for crypto transactions, and my seed phrase is not stored anywhere digitally. I immediately checked etherscan to see what had happened.
My wallet:
https://etherscan.io/address/0x69ac7d9d794cbbd9632e8d917a180462885c390d
Scammer's wallet:
https://etherscan.io/address/0x829e1d3b535e08960dae4aa9c06e2b13659dfe21
Upon confirming my ETH was stolen, I knew what went wrong. The night before, I was playing a crypto game called Town Star. The game allows for scripts to automate some of the actions in the game. I searched around and came across this YouTube channel that promoted a link to such a script.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSc6fSgFbBc (now deactivated by YouTube)
I downloaded the script, and in a lapse of judgement, I ran it without doing enough due diligence or have my spider senses go off. It immediately triggered my anti-virus and the file was quarantined and removed. I had a quick thought to reformat my computer right then, but it was late, and I went to sleep. Once I found out my ETH was stolen the next day, I scoured the internet to figure out what to do next.
- File local police report (report approved)
- Submit IC3.gov internet crime report
- Keep close tab on scammer's wallet
- Learn about how to notify exchanges once the stolen ETH moves
I had a mining payout that was scheduled to payout that same day. I sat in front of my computer all day to move the last bit out before the scammer could do so. A day after, I was contacted by a Secret Service agent who had seen my IC3.gov report. Here's our correspondence below:
Since then, I've been waiting for a response back. Safe to say I went through all the emotions of fear, anger, shame, denial, grief, and acceptance. My wife and son gave me a lot of comfort in the past 2 weeks. I felt like I had failed them. My family is absolutely devastated by this incident as this was a big investment for us to mine the ETH. But I'm grateful to know that we have the strength to carry on even if the money never comes back.
I know now the dangers of having a hot wallet. Previously when I started mining, I went for the quick and cheapest solution. As my mining continued, I neglected to understand how to secure my assets and didn't take the necessary actions to do that. And while I've come to terms that the ETH will 99.9% never come back, I stumbled across u/anonymizeme post recently, and it gave me some hope. Our family is praying for a Christmas miracle. Appreciate any guidance and support. Merry Christmas everyone!
Update:
The agent gave me a call this afternoon with an update:
- He has connected with Google to track down the account info/IP of the YouTube channel, waiting on results
- There is an alert put out on the scammer wallet address to exchanges, they will be notified if there's movement. He suggested I also keep watch and call him first thing if I notice it.
- Head of digital asset investigation is on vacation, will return in January
- This isn't the first time this script has been reported.
Not getting my hopes up but will keep everyone posted. Thanks all.
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