Students loot millions of dollars in crypto and spend them on video games

NFT drainer
Students loot millions of dollars in crypto goods – and squander the money on video games

Thefts of digital goods such as crypto coins and NFTs continue to rise. A new trick is apparently not only popular with professional hackers – but also with students. The damage is now more than 73 million dollars.

When one thinks of robberies on crypto exchanges, spectacular large-scale operations come to mind, with hackers like North Korea’s Lazarus group stealing hundreds of millions (here you can find out how a small detail thwarted a billion-dollar robbery). In the case of a mesh that is currently increasing sharply, the masterminds are obviously much younger. And still cause millions in damage.

This is shown by studies by “Scam Sniffer”. According to the crypto experts, digital robberies with so-called NFT drains are currently increasing significantly. The programs are designed to hijack the crypto accounts of their victims. And then sell the loot profitably.

Attack via Discord

The attack is mainly carried out via the messenger Telegram and the chat tool Discord. The program, which was initially popular with gamers, is now used primarily by many young people as the main means of communication, and is also the medium of choice for many technical topics (find out more here). The hackers use this to contact the operators of crypto discussion forums. Under pretense, they get them to fill out specially prepared forms or save a manipulated website as a bookmark. And thus take control of the corresponding channel.

Now comes the real theft: as administrators, they ask members to visit a specific website. There they become infected with the drainer bought from forums. And he plunders the crypto accounts of the victims.

spoil of millions

This is extremely successful. The drainers traded in relevant forums have dusted off tens of millions of dollars in some cases. According to the findings of “Sunsec”, digital goods worth more than $27 million were stolen via the Drainer Venom alone, with two others also worth more than $14 million. Eight million dollars are said to have been looted from the Drainer Pussy in a single day alone.

However, this income does not go into the war chests of notorious hacker groups. “95 percent of them are kids under the age of 18 who are still going to school,” explains a security expert from the trading platform “Opensea”, who only calls himself “Plum”, to the specialist site “The Block”. According to his own statements, he had contact with numerous hackers. “They talk about their teachers, about the fact that they still have to do their homework.”

The loot would be distributed according to age. “They buy a laptop, smartphones, shoes. And they put a lot of money into Roblox. Everyone plays Roblox.” The video game has been popular with a younger audience for years. “They buy the coolest stuff for their avatars, video games, skins and stuff like that.” In addition, a lot of money would be put into designer clothes, ordering food and online gambling. Poker games with a stake of $40,000 would then be broadcast on the relevant Discord servers. “Some even buy a car that they are then not allowed to drive at all,” the expert marvels.

“You feel invulnerable”

Although the young hackers would certainly cover their tracks, for example by paying citizens of developing countries to use their data to register accounts, they are not really careful. “You feel invulnerable,” Plum believes.

However, the fact that the state hackers do not appear in the top lists of commercial drainers should not be due to the fact that they do not use NFT theft as a source of income. However, they are not dependent on the solutions offered in forums, they use their own software. And they usually cover their tracks much more skilfully.

Sources: Scam Sniffer, The block