A wallet drainer for The Open Network (TON) has officially announced its closure, redirecting users to another crypto-draining service. This announcement came on October 7 when Web3 anti-scam solution provider Scam Sniffer shared a screenshot revealing the closure. The wallet drainer attributed its shutdown to the absence of crypto whales within the TON ecosystem, stating, 'Due to TON not having whales and it being a small community, we will close.' In a striking twist, the hackers advised users to turn their attention to Bitcoin (BTC) instead, indicating that those who previously drained funds in the TON environment would likely find Bitcoin draining equally enticing.
They also promoted an alternative service, definitively stating that the TON-based drainer would not resume operations. The interest in TON-based drainers has been escalating since June, reflecting a burgeoning concern within the crypto community. In a prior interview, Blockaid co-founder Raz Niv highlighted a rising curiosity surrounding the TON ecosystem among drainers, primarily due to the considerable value flowing through it.
Notably, one drainer was caught employing a counterfeit 5,000 USDt (USDT) transaction as bait to ensnare users, cleverly using TON’s comment feature. This function permits the inclusion of custom messages in transfers, allowing scammers to obfuscate the actual intent of their signatures. Transfer prompts that read 'Receive 5,000 USDT' coupled with a 'Confirm' button initiated the token drain as soon as users signed. In May, Scam Sniffer disclosed that this manipulation of TON’s features had already led to the draining of 22,000 Toncoin (TON) tokens, translating to a staggering value of over $150,000 at that time. In related developments, Scam Sniffer’s insights revealed that phishing scams had drained a chilling $46.6 million from digital assets in September, impacting approximately 10,800 victims.
A significant portion of the losses was attributed to a single phishing transaction that alone siphoned over $32 million in crypto. Such phishing attacks generally trick crypto holders into connecting their wallets to deceitful services like drainers, enabling malicious parties to extract funds without requiring additional authentication steps.
This alarming trend underscores the necessity for heightened vigilance among crypto holders as the landscape continues to evolve..