GIGA Token Holder Loses $6.09M in Phishing Scam

A Giga Token ($GIGA) holder has suffered a massive loss of $6.09 million after falling victim to a phishing attack. The scam occurred when the individual clicked on a fake Zoom meeting link, which led to the theft of 95.3 million GIGA tokens. 

How the Attack Happened

A fraudulent Zoom meeting link, appearing legitimate, was received by an investor holding GIGA tokens. The deceptive link redirected him to a fake website designed to harvest sensitive wallet information. 

Once on the site, the victim unwittingly provided access to their crypto wallets, allowing the hacker to steal the funds.

According to the findings from Onchain Lens, the hacker extracted 95.3 million GIGA tokens, which were worth around $6.09 million at the time. 

The scammer then converted the stolen tokens into $SOL, which was valued at approximately $2.1 million. The $SOL was later converted into stablecoins, including $USDC and $USDT, before being transferred to other wallet addresses. Some of the stolen funds even made their way to the KuCoin exchange, complicating the traceability of the theft.

Following the theft, the victim reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and a forensics team to investigate the incident and potentially recover the stolen funds. Although the recovery of funds remains uncertain

The Growing Threat of Crypto Phishing Attacks

Scammers in the crypto space often impersonate trusted entities to trick victims into sharing sensitive information such as private keys to wallets. In this case, the hacker used a fake Zoom link to deceive the victim into providing the necessary details for the attack.

According to Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm, crypto scams in 2024 are generating billions of dollars in illicit funds. Scammers have shifted from long-term schemes to more targeted and shorter campaigns, with "pig butchering" scams standing out as a prime example. 

In fact, Chainalysis found that 43% of scam-related funds in 2024 were directed to wallets that were activated that same year. This shows that scammers are increasingly agile in creating new wallets to avoid detection and improve the success rate of their attacks. 

Furthermore, the average duration of these scams has decreased dramatically, from 271 days in 2020 to just 42 days in 2024, indicating that criminals are moving faster to cash out their stolen funds before being caught.