Online hacking is one of the crypto industry’s biggest problems, creating significant risks for investors and companies alike. Hacks on crypto exchanges and wallets cause huge financial losses worth billions of dollars, as well as undermining trust in digital assets.

Despite cybersecurity efforts, fraudsters continue to find weaknesses through phishing, smart contract vulnerabilities and attacks on blockchain infrastructure.

Cryptocurrency hacking

Offline theft of funds is quite rare amidst general statistics. Therefore, such cases of robbery cause a lively discussion in the community, which is what Zak emphasised.

However, the expert also shared his own recommendations that will help not to get on the radar of scammers and avoid unpleasant situations.

How not to lose your cryptocurrencies

Earlier on 18 June 2024, a Twitter user under the nickname hiddentao posted that he was the victim of a robbery. As a result of the robbery, the attackers managed to get their hands on $4.3 million worth of coins from two of his addresses.

Here’s the victim’s line.

This just happened – three guys physically robbed me in my house. They were armed with machetes. They knew I had a crypto and they knew where I lived. They forced me to open my Ledger wallet and then withdrew all my cryptocurrencies. Luckily, I wasn’t injured. I am still in a state of shock. This is one of the worst days of my life.

According to Cointelegraph’s sources, the victim mentioned his addresses from which the coins were withdrawn.

Thanks to this, ZachXBT has mapped the movement of the cryptocurrency in his track. They were withdrawn to two attackers’ wallets, after which they went a long way to cover their tracks. Here’s the relevant chart.

Map of the movement of cryptocurrencies that were stolen from a user offline

The investigation revealed that the crime was committed by one Faris Ali, also known by his aliases Zay or Tommy. And he was assisted in the scheme by his associates.

ZachXBT published their correspondence just before the crime – they discussed the details of the case. In particular, the perpetrators planned how they would pose as couriers and supposedly deliver the parcel to the victim’s door.

Photo of the perpetrators before the robbery

The chat room also flashed a photo of the victim’s door. Accordingly, Ali and his accomplice learnt a lot of personal information about the digital asset holder long beforehand and identified his physical location.

The chat room of the robbers who discussed the details of the scheme before stealing the digital assets

A few weeks ago, Faris allegedly bragged to his friends on Telegram about a photo of a bail receipt regarding his criminal record. In this way, he inadvertently revealed his identity.

This leak of information became significant after the robbery occurred. Shortly after the incident, someone registered an Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain with the name farisali.eth and sent a message on the blockchain.

That is, the user hoped that the message would reach the robber and the robber decided to return 60 per cent of the funds. This is the amount that the person potentially linked to the loss of digital assets insisted on.

A receipt for posting bail for one of the criminals

Here’s a quote from the post.

Faris, it’s time to pay up, no games. In 24 hours I will give the police all your details: full date of birth, location, addresses with photos and evidence of your involvement. Send 60 per cent to this address and we’ll part ways. If not, enjoy prison and the loss of the freedom you’ve put on the line for this.

A message on the blockchain addressed to one of the robbers in the briefcase in question.

We can assume that theoretically it is not the robbery victim who demands the money from the criminals, but someone who found out about the story. Therefore, in this case, the prospect of recovering digital assets is hardly believable.

The story mentioned by ZachXBT is just one case out of many other real robberies. It’s hard to be completely safe from such a situation, but cryptocurrency owners should still heed some advice from an analyst.

For starters, don't share personal information or details about your cryptocurrency portfolio with acquaintances or on social media. Monitor your personal information when it ends up online so that you can respond to any incidents in time. Also, if possible, do not share personal information and use fictitious names.

Cryptocurrency hackers

According to Zak, in recent months, more and more crypto investors from Western Europe have fallen victim to a robbery at home. Apparently, they posted relevant coin connection details on social media, after which they were caught by the criminal.


It should be noted that Ledger hardware wallets support an advanced security feature that allows you to protect your own coins in real-life robbery situations, when criminals threaten the victim and require her to disclose the password to the device. This is the so-called passphrase, which is an additional word on top of the basic 24 words of the cid-phrase or recovery phrase.

It is added to this set of words and creates a completely new set of addresses, and the use of this function is not reported anywhere on the wallet. This means that the user can keep a small part of his portfolio on regular wallets, while the rest of the coins will be on hidden wallets. If he is required to unlock Ledger and transfer the crypto, he will do so, but will keep silent about the special addresses. This way, if he is lucky, a large portion of the portfolio will be saved.


Ledger Flex hardware cryptocurrency wallet


In general, it is possible to protect your coins from outsiders, and the main rule for this is to keep silent about your own connection to the industry. Of course, only a tiny fraction of crypto investors face robberies, but this is no reason to take risks. Plus, for added security, it's worth familiarising yourself with the passphrase we've already mentioned.


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