A crypto investor was scammed after he made a simple iPhone mistake. Because of what he did, the scammers were able to empty his MetaMask crypto wallet.
A sticker on the window of a local pub indicates the acceptance of Bitcoins for payment on April 11, 2013 in Berlin, Germany. Bitcoins are a digital currency traded on the MTGox exchange, and the value of the virtual money fluctuated from USD 260 per bitcoin down to USD 130 per bitcoin yesterday and recovered somewhat in trading today.
To make it worst, he also used this digital coin wallet to store his three NFTs, which he purchased from the Gutter Cat Collection.
"Hey y'all, let's see how amazing this community can be. My entire wallet was just stolen. Totally wiped out," said Domenic Iacovone, the scammed crypto investor, via his official tweet.
Of course, he also shared what exactly happened before he lost thousands of dollars.
Crypto Investor Lost Thousands of Dollars
According to LABible's report, the scammers were able to acquire all the cryptocurrencies and NFTs from Iacovone in just a few seconds.
An image of Bitcoin and US currencies is displayed on a screen as delegates listen to a panel of speakers during the Interpol World Congress in Singapore on July 4, 2017. - The three-day conference on fostering innovation for future security challenges is taking place from July 4 to 6. (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)
Also Read: Crypto Investing Reportedly Reveals 'Dark' Personality Traits In People--Here's Why
The scam started when the investor received numerous calls from a contact claiming that they were from Apple. At first, he was just ignoring the calls.
But, when he saw that the caller ID of the contact was "Apple Inc," he decided to call them back. During their conversation, the scammers told him that his Apple account was compromised.
After that, he received an identity confirmation. Dominic decided to provide the code to the malicious actors since he thought they were from Apple Inc.
This is how it happened, Got a phone call from apple, literally from apple (on my caller Id) Called it back because I suspected fraud and it was an apple number. So I believed them
— Domenic Iacovone (@revive_dom) April 14, 2022
They asked for a code that was sent to my phone and 2 seconds later my entire MetaMask was wiped
Because of this mistake, the scammers were able to acquire the 12-word password of his MetaMask. This allowed them to access the man's MetaMask crypto wallet and steal around $650,000 in total (cryptocurrencies and NFTs).
How To Be NOT Like the Scammed Crypto Investor
Help Coinbase provided some tips on how to avoid getting fooled by crypto scammers. Here are some of them:
- Don't accept outbound calls asking for your personal information.
- Avoid sending cryptocurrencies to external wallet addresses on behalf of support agents.
- Never provide your sensitive details, even if you think that the caller is one of the official employees of a company.
- Avoid sharing your 2FA codes with anyone.
- Make some research regarding the number of the caller before providing any information.
Meanwhile, some Australian crypto investors decided to use their digital coins to purchase luxurious cars.
Recently, various Nigerian bank lenders were accused of conducting illegal crypto transactions.
For more news updates about crypto scams and other related security threats, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
Related Article: Former ETH Employee Allegedly Helps North Korea Evade Sanctions Using Crypto-Leading to Five-Year Imprisonment
This article is owned by TechTimes
Written by: Griffin Davis
