Victim Loses $91M in Bitcoin in Social Engineering Scam: ZachXBT

A fraudster posing as a hardware wallet support agent tricked the target into handing over wallet credentials.

What to know:

  • A victim lost 783 BTC in a social engineering scam after an attacker impersonated hardware wallet support.
  • The stolen funds were funneled through multiple deposits into Wasabi Wallet, a privacy tool used to mask transaction trails.
  • The hack came exactly one year after the $243M Genesis creditor theft, underscoring ongoing vulnerabilities in crypto security.

Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT uncovered a high-profile social engineering attack on Thursday, with the victim losing 783 BTC worth around $91.4 million.

The scam occurred on Aug. 19 and involved the attacker posing as a support agent for a hardware wallet before duping the victim into handing over wallet credentials.

The attack mirrors a string of social engineering attacks over the past year and contributes to an already woeful year in terms of hacks and scams, with crypto investors losing $3.1 billion in the first half of 2025.

Once the malicious transfer was made, the funds began their journey through a typical laundering process, with multiple deposits made into Wasabi Wallet, a privacy tool commonly used to obfuscate the trail.

The hack occurred exactly one year after the $243 million Genesis creditor theft, a landmark event that sent ripples across the industry and led to the arrest of 12 people in California in May.

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Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

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