My Crypto Wallet Got Hacked and Drained: But This Happened!
Honestly, I feel ashamed to share this story because I should have known better. But I hope you can learn from it and protect yourself.
It was a Sunday morning on January 21, 2024. I had woken up but was still drowsy. Suddenly, I got multiple notifications on my phone. So, I struggled to open my eyes and pick up the phone.
To my surprise, I received message alerts from TrustWallet indicating that I had transferred tokens to other wallets. I thought I was dreaming.
I jumped out of bed and said, is this a joke? But before I could react, I realized that someone had compromised my crypto wallet. The hacker transferred all the tokens in my wallet to other wallets, leaving only tokens that had zero value.
My mind ran back and forth, trying to figure out how this person gained access to my wallet.
I knew that I often used this wallet for yield farming, staking, providing liquidity, airdrop farming, and NFT collections.
So, I always transfer valuable assets from this main wallet into other private wallets that are not connected to staking platforms. This strategy was my saving grace.
Despite that, I had some tokens in the wallet for paying gas fees and transaction costs. Yet, this hacker showed no mercy but transferred every cent and dollar until I had nothing left in my main wallet.
This story is not about how much I lost, but how the hacker got into my private wallet and carried out transactions without my consent.
After thinking about it for several days, I came up with two possible ways the hacker could have gained access.
- Either he used phishing software that gave him access to my OneDrive, where I had foolishly stored my seed phrase. (You should never store your seed phrase or crypto passwords online).
- Or he got in through the Web 3 staking platforms I had recently connected my wallet to and signed a transaction.
I think the second option is more likely because a few days before the hack; I had un-staked FTM-TOMB on the Fantom ecosystem where I had provided liquidity for yield farmers.
The platform was no longer active, so I decided to un-stake my tokens. But when I tried to un-stake the pool, I got a notification to sign the transaction through a third party since the pool was dead.
At first, I was skeptical, but I needed to claim my tokens. So, I signed the transaction, but something weird happened. The value of my tokens dropped by over 70% after the transaction. But I overlooked it and said to myself, ‘Something is better than nothing’.
Then, I claimed the tokens, swapped them to FTM-BOO, and re-staked the pool on another yield farming platform. Right after I completed the transaction, I felt that something was wrong.
I quickly moved the valuable assets from my main wallet to other ones for safety. Today, I am glad I followed my intuition. Otherwise, it could have been a different story.
While I was still trying to figure out how the scammer got into my wallet, I read reports of scammers using advanced tricks to hack people’s wallets by sending fake emails pretending to be OpenSea, crypto exchanges, and other platforms. Sadly, many people fell for it, and the scammer made fortunes. You can read the tweet below.
“(I) just got this email and clicked without thinking for a moment. They got me in a moment of distraction. I realized right after connecting my wallet, but it was too late. Funds worth 50K were stolen immediately, SAVM and my ALPHA Prestie NFT, I am (really) mad now. BE AWARE!”
So, you can see that scammers had developed new tricks, but I had no idea how my wallet was compromised. If it had happened on a centralized exchange (which is almost impossible), I could’ve gotten help.
But when I sent a message to the TrustWallet support team, a bot replied saying it was impossible to recover my funds. Now, let us discuss tips to protect yourself while using a decentralized wallet.
How to Protect Your Crypto Wallet From Hackers
So, here are some tips to avoid losing your cryptocurrency assets to hackers.
- Never connect your main wallet to any decentralized platforms.
- If you use a hot wallet, create multiple wallets and use a different one for airdrops and staking.
- Have a dedicated cold wallet such as Ledger Nano X to store your cryptocurrencies securely.
- When selling your cryptocurrencies, only send funds to reputable centralized exchanges like Binance, Bybit, Coinbase, KuCoin, and others.
- Don’t sell your cryptocurrencies on a decentralized platform by connecting your cold wallet. Hackers may compromise your wallet if you are not careful.
- If you are new to the cryptocurrency industry, focus on learning how to trade on centralized exchanges, and avoid using any decentralized platform because that is where most crypto scams happen.
For example
If you have issues using a decentralized platform, you cannot reach out for customer support through traditional means like email or phone numbers. Instead, you will have to report the problem on a Telegram or Discord channel.
However, the issue with this approach is that once you post your complaint, several scammers might contact you privately, even before the customer representatives.
These scammers pretend to be support staff and offer to help you solve your problem. But if you give them any details, they will get access to your seed phrase or ask you to sign a transaction. Once you do that, they will get into your wallet, steal your funds, and the rest will be stories.
Therefore, for the sake of your funds, avoid using your main wallet for airdrop farming, pool staking, and other Web 3 activities. But if you must use it, ensure to transfer your funds into a dedicated wallet you haven’t used for such activities.
Also, share this information with your elderly parents and loved ones who may not understand these processes. If experienced people are still losing funds and getting hacked, what about novices?
Final Thoughts
I was lucky that I stored my crypto assets in a cold storage wallet and others in a private hot wallet. Otherwise, these hackers would have wiped out my entire wealth and left me with nothing. What about you? Have you had any experience with scammers?
I would love to hear from you. Please share your story in the comments section.
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