It’s early morning, and you decide to browse social media to find ways to optimize the returns from your cherished cryptocurrencies. While scrolling through various posts and Twitter dramas, an offer from an influencer you follow catches your eye. The offer promises an airdrop of valuable tokens for the first 1000 users of a new decentralized exchange resembling Uniswap.
Soon, you land on a seemingly “trustworthy” site. However, things escalate quickly. There’s a sense of urgency, and FOMO sets in, urging you to act immediately. Before you know it, a pop-up prompts you to connect your Metamask wallet, seemingly the final step to the airdrop. You authorize the transaction, and in a flash, your cryptocurrencies disappear, taken without your explicit consent.
Sadly, many have been ensnared by this deceptive practice. These operations, referred to as drainers, often have multiple players. One group meticulously crafts the malicious code to slyly redirect funds, while another uses phishing methods to lure in the unwary.
They frequently manage to compromise credentials of a somewhat known Twitter account, using it to further the scam, and capitalizing on the trust the genuine account owner has established.
These fraudsters typically split their ill-gotten gains based on pre-decided terms. More often than not, they operate behind pseudonyms, hiding their true selves, sometimes even from their accomplices.
How to prevent falling for a drainer fraud.
The foolproof way to prevent becoming a victim of a drainer is simply not to use any DEFI service that doesn’t have a certain reputation, and to keep in mind that a Metamask wallet should never be used for more than storing a small amount of money.
A browser plugin-type wallet should be considered as the liquidity one would carry in their pocket to go out on the street and should never be used to hold substantial amounts of funds, just as no one would carry their entire capital in their pocket to go buy bread on the street.
The credibility of a website should be verified using multiple trustworthy sources, using social media, like Twitter, and Google Search. Then, it is essential to check the domain name character by character to ensure its accuracy. When dealing with characters that look identical, but are otherwise different — a tactic seen in “Punycode” attacks — it’s advisable to copy and paste the domain name into a text-to-decimal converter. By comparing the resulting numeric values to those of the genuine domain you’ve recorded, you can ascertain its authenticity.
It’s also important not to sign any smart contract transaction that you don’t understand, and always test new platforms with a wallet that contains little funds, to mitigate damages in case it turns out to be a scam.
What to do if you’ve been victimized by a drainer fraud?
Realizing you’ve fallen prey to a drainer fraud can be devastating. However, time is of the essence. The initial 48 hours post-theft are critical, as it’s often during this timeframe that thieves transfer funds from the initial theft address, beginning the laundering process that obscures their trail.
Your first course of action should be gathering evidence. Instead of screenshots, directly copy and paste the transaction hash or identifier from the blockchain explorer, particularly for those transactions that you didn’t authorize but moved funds out of your wallet.
Seeking the assistance of professionals is paramount, especially within this initial time-sensitive window. Tracelon, with its advanced forensic capabilities, can rapidly evaluate the situation. They can trace the movement of stolen assets, determine the scale of the breach, and most crucially, provide guidance on steps to take to disrupt the funds’ laundering process. The goal here is to act swiftly, intercepting assets before they’re irretrievably washed into the vast array of blockchain networks.
Active monitoring using specialized tools and having connections within the blockchain Anti-Money Laundering (AML) community is key for an effective post-incident response. This network can offer valuable intel, perhaps illuminating paths less traveled, aiding in tracking down the criminals and your assets.
Simultaneously, it’s crucial to lodge a formal complaint with local law enforcement. While their capabilities might initially seem limited concerning digital theft, legally documenting the incident can be invaluable, especially if it becomes part of a broader investigation in the future or when private efforts lead to stolen funds being intercepted by AML systems.
