Scammer Nabs $55,000 in Crypto by Duping the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency: Report

A scammer has reportedly duped the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) into sending them $55,000 worth of crypto.

According to a new report from Forbes, the DEA sent a test transfer of $45.36 worth of Tether (USDT) to the U.S. Marshals Service after seizing more than $500,000 worth of the stablecoin in May from two Binance accounts suspected of laundering drug money.

A scammer, however, reportedly noticed the test transaction and created a crypto wallet with the same first five and last four characters as the U.S. Marshals’ address. The bad actor then airdropped a token into the DEA wallet, and the DEA sent that scam wallet more than $55,000 worth of USDT, mistakenly believing the look-alike address belonged to the Marshals.

The DEA and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have monitored the stolen funds, which have been converted to Ethereum (ETH) and transferred to a different wallet, according to Forbes. The FBI has already filed a warrant and is spearheading the investigation.

Digital asset scams, which tend to pull in the most money among all crypto crimes, saw a 77% decline in revenue over the first half of 2023 compared to the same period last year, according to a recent report from the blockchain data platform Chainalysis.

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