Billionaire technology investor and Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban experienced a massive blow in the crypto space recently when he lost approximately 870,000 worth of tokens to a phishing attack. After several months of inactivity, Cuban fell victim to the tricksters who outsmarted him into divulging sensitive data and downloading malware.
Phishing strikes are extremely prevalent within the crypto industry. Users may overlook examining the origin of requests on a crypto wallet or download a sham application mimicking the original, which only aims to steal holdings.
Cuban’s crypto wallet was majorly drained of U.S. pegged stablecoins, staked ETH (stETH), SuperRare (RARE) tokens, and a handful of Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains, as fetched from blockchain data. Initial spotting of these transactions was credited to on-chain detective wazzcrypto.
The incident drew concern due to its suspicious nature. Prompting Cuban to act swiftly to prevent further losses by transferring 2.5 million worth of Polygon’s MATIC tokens to a Coinbase exchange address.
The Shark Tank billionaire believes that the phishing attack originated from a counterfeit MetaMask crypto wallet application, which he unintentionally downloaded while cleaning up his account via his smartphone. Cuban’s situation serves as an eye-opener becoming the second phishing attack to strike a high-profile personality within weeks, the first being Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin.
In the cloud of this misfortune, even though Cuban’s other accounts remained untouched, the incident serves as a crucial reminder of practicing complete caution when maneuvering within the crypto space. It emphasizes the necessity to confirm the publisher’s authenticity while downloading any browser extension, especially wallets. Download trackers indicate extension authenticity with legitimate extensions showcasing thousands or even millions of downloads.
The true MetaMask extension, published by metamask.io, boasts over 10 million downloads. Users can avoid falling victim to such scams by practicing caution, particularly when required to enter a seed phrase to import a wallet. The legitimacy of the application is paramount before such a step.
You might want to consider using a hardware wallet compatible with MetaMask for additional security, as this would secure you from risks since it exempts the need for a seed phrase import. Any extension that asks for the importation of a seed phrase signals a red flag and indicates its deceptive nature.
Remember, self-custody of crypto assets is a responsibility. Be on your guard and ensure you receive news fastest way possible to stay updated. Let’s learn from this incident and guard our digital assets appropriately. Your digital security is just as important as your physical one.
