Fraudster Returns IDR 150 Billion To Victims After Crypto Theft Worth IDR 387 Billion

JAKARTA - A phishing scam victim managed to get back 9.3 million US Dollars (around Rp150 billion), ten months after losing 24 million US Dollars (around Rp387 billion) in crypto theft in September the previous year. This incident is in the spotlight because it rarely happens.

According to Coinspeaker information, on July 6, the fraudster who previously took the funds suddenly contacted the victim via an on-chain message. With surprising words, he expressed his intention to return the stolen money:

"Hey, I'm the one who took your money. I want to return the money."

Two days later, the perpetrators began to return the funds with the first transfer of 5.23 million US Dollars (around Rp. 84 billion) in Dai stablecoin on July 8. On July 13, the fraudster made the second transfer to the victim's wallet address, increasing the total returned to 9.3 million US Dollars (around Rp150 billion).

However, the rest of the stolen funds are still in the hands of the fraudster. Data from Etherscan shows that the crypto wallet contains more than 3 million US Dollars (approximately IDR 48 billion), especially in the form of the METAGALAXY LAND (MEGALAND) token from BNB Chain.

The original theft occurred on September 6, 2023, when the victim lost 9,579 Lido Stacted Ether (SteTH) and 4,850 Rocket Pool (RETH). The perpetrator managed to manipulate the victim by allowing the 'Increase Allowance' transaction to allow expenditure by third parties on the victim's ERC-20 token, thus draining the victim's assets.

Although phishing attacks in the crypto world often result in heavy losses, the return of some of these funds provides hope for victims and suggests that there is a possibility to recover losses from crypto crimes. Hopefully this story will be an inspiration for the crypto community to always be careful and increase security measures.