FTX customers are already out almost $9 billion after the crypto exchange, once valued at $32 billion, collapsed in November and soon entered bankruptcy proceedings. And now, some hackers are adding insult to injury by sending these customers fake emails in an attempt to snatch whatever crypto they have left.
ZachXBT, a well-known, pseudonymous revealer of crypto scams, posted on X/Twitter that one of his friends received an email saying they were “an eligible client to begin withdrawing digital assets” from FTX.
A friend just received a phishing email to the email associated with their FTX account. Pic.twitter.com/cWy3ykN4B3
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) August 25, 2023
Other users also screenshotted emails they received from fake email addresses purporting to be involved with the FTX bankruptcy. An FTX creditor who wished to remain anonymous shared four screenshots with Coins2Day of the same email sent to his account on Aug. 24 and Aug. 25. The address from which they came was [email protected].
The phishing attempts, or messages pretending to be from a legitimate source that try to trick users into revealing personal information, follow a recent hack of Kroll, the claims agent in FTX’s ongoing bankruptcy case. On Aug. 19, a hacker gained access to a Kroll employee’s phone number through a SIM swap and soon released details on FTX creditors, in addition to information on those involved in Genesis and BlockFi’s bankruptcies.
(1/3) FTX learned that Kroll, the claims agent in the bankruptcy, experienced a cybersecurity incident that compromised non-sensitive customer data of certain claimants in the pending bankruptcy case.
— FTX (@FTX_Official) August 25, 2023
“T-Mobile, without any authority from or contact with Kroll or its employee, transferred that employee’s phone number to the threat actor’s phone at their request,” Kroll wrote in a post announcing the security breach on Friday. “As a result, it appears the threat actor gained access to certain files containing personal information of bankruptcy claimants.”
The hack of Kroll and the subsequent targeting of FTX creditors also comes just one month before former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried goes to trial. The Justice Department has brought seven charges, including money laundering, bank fraud, and defrauding customers and lenders. After the judge presiding over his case sent Bankman-Fried to jail for allegedly tampering with witnesses, including Caroline Ellison, prosecutors and defense lawyers have most recently battled over which expert witnesses will testify at the trial.
