{"id":315970,"date":"2025-08-04T01:31:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T01:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/315970\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T01:31:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T01:31:18","slug":"908k-usdc-stolen-458-days-after-approval-your-wallet-security-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/315970\/","title":{"rendered":"$908K USDC stolen, 458 days after approval: ‘Your wallet security matters!’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKey Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n

A user lost nearly $1 million in USDC to a scam tied to a malicious contract signed 458 days earlier. Experts warn that this delayed exploit trend is becoming a go-to strategy for crypto thieves.<\/p>\n

A crypto user lost $908,551 in USD Coin [USDC]<\/a> after falling victim to a wallet-draining scam that exploited a malicious contract approval signed over 15 months ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: X<\/p>\n

According to onchain data, the victim approved<\/a> a malicious smart contract on the 30th of April 2024, most likely through a fake airdrop or a phishing site disguised as a legitimate platform.<\/p>\n

Following this, the scammer patiently waited for nearly 16 months before executing the final blow on the 2nd of August 2025, draining the victim\u2019s wallet of nearly a million dollars in USDC. <\/p>\n

How old wallet approvals can turn scary<\/strong><\/p>\n

The attack traced back to an ERC-20 approval that silently gave access to a scammer wallet \u201c0x67E5Ae\u201d linked to the pink-drainer.eth address.<\/p>\n

The contract allowed token transfers without any further user confirmation.<\/p>\n

According to Scam Sniffer, who flagged the incident on X, the theft occurred a staggering 458 days after the victim unknowingly approved the malicious transaction.<\/p>\n

Soon after this, Scam Sniffer took to X and noted<\/a>,\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cRegularly review and revoke old approvals \u2013 your wallet security matters!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In this case, the compromised wallet had previously shown only minor, low-value activity, which likely helped it fly under the radar.<\/p>\n

How did this start?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Things took a sharp turn on the 2nd of July.<\/p>\n

The victim moved $762,397 USDC from MetaMask<\/a> to a new wallet (0x6c0eB6) at 8:41 PM UTC.<\/p>\n

Just ten minutes later, they topped it up with another $146,154 from a Kraken account. These movements were public on-chain and likely alerted the scammer.<\/p>\n

Instead of acting right away, the attacker waited another month, likely to confirm no reversal or additional deposits. And then struck at 4:57 a.m. UTC on the 2nd of August.<\/p>\n

The stolen funds were sent to an address labeled Fake_Phishing322880 and flagged by Scam Sniffer as malicious.<\/p>\n

Scams getting smarter<\/strong><\/p>\n

This shows that the surge in crypto-related scams is growing more sophisticated by the day, as bad actors exploit both technology and trust. <\/p>\n

From AI-generated deepfakes of Ripple executives to impersonated YouTube channels promoting fake XRP giveaways, scammers are leveraging realism to deceive<\/a> unsuspecting users. <\/p>\n

At the same time, the resurfacing of a colossal 16-billion-record credential leak has heightened the risks across platforms.<\/p>\n

In one alarming instance, a targeted phishing attack<\/a> used a blend of urgency, impersonation, and cross-platform manipulation to fool even a seasoned cybersecurity expert.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even experienced users have fallen prey.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: Galaxy<\/p>\n

Even cybersecurity analyst Christopher Rosa fell for a phishing scam using spoofed emails, fake Coinbase calls, and coordinated social engineering.<\/p>\n

The takeaway is blunt but vital: old approvals don\u2019t expire, and attackers don\u2019t forget.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext: Below $3 again, XRP faces heavy pressure \u2013 But THIS level can flip the trend<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways A user lost nearly $1 million in USDC to a scam tied to a malicious contract…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[52,51,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-315970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-ambcrypto","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114967916273594088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}