- The phishing authorization provided access to the wallets for over 458 days
- The thief came in after the victim had deposited $908K USDC
- Revoke old approvals regularly for wallet safety
One of the most significant phishing attacks resulted in the loss of 908,551 dollars of a crypto user. Over four hundred and fifty-eight days ago, the criminal took advantage of a signed consent. The scam that took place is a long-overdue one, and it underlines rising risks in the crypto phishing environment.
On April 30, 2024, the victim made a rogue ERC-20 approval transaction. This allowed scammers to have complete access to the wallet, but no theft happened immediately.
Source – X
The wallet was not active until the 2nd of July, 2025, when huge deposits worth more than 908 K were added. Following the ten-minute mark, a MetaMask address was responsible for the transfer of $762,397, while Kraken was responsible for the transfer of $146,154. The scammer waited patiently and hit early August, draining the wallet in a single transaction.
Scammer’s Patience Paid Off in Massive Theft
This case highlights one of the sneaky aspects of phishing: fraudsters do not move quickly. They keep track of wallet activity and strike when the balances are profitable. The point of attack associated with pink-drainer.eth happened at 4:57 am UTC on August 2, 2025, with an amount of $908K worth of USDC stablecoins stolen.
Source – X
Security researcher Scam Sniffer stressed the need to revoke old approvals and review them. Their warning on X said that old permissions allow constant access to their wallets, and this puts users at great risk.
Crypto wallets often require approvals for token interactions. Nonetheless, users are deceived by ill-minded individuals into signing approvals through phishing websites or airdrops. These hidden permissions allow prolonged unauthorized access. This stealthy method makes recovering lost funds exceptionally difficult.
The Growing Threat of Phishing in Crypto
Phishing attacks exploiting wallet approvals are a rising menace. The latest tendencies indicate more than 41 million lost in such frauds in the short term. Hackers implement practical counterfeit tokens and contracts to make users unknowingly give their wallets approvals.
Cryptocurrencies are stolen in different ways by cyber criminals, including false emails, landing pages, and social engineering. Most phishing campaigns are aimed at stealing credentials or business email compromises, where the victim is requested to pay in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency theft through illegal transfer is one of the most convenient ways of stealing money by cybercriminals.
With the increase in sophistication of theft methods, there is an escalated risk to both casual users and massive holders of crypto. Professionals recommend that wallet security should be regularly checked, approval should be signed with caution, and one should never trust any unsolicited crypto requests.
