Scammers invented a sophisticated way to steal cryptocurrency with hardware wallets Ledger

“If this image seems familiar to you, immediately withdraw money from your Ledger purse”, – such words begin the message on Reddit, the author of which spoke about a rather sophisticated and at the same time simple scheme of theft of funds from hardware purses intended for the safe storage of cryptocurrency.

Several people became victims of fraud. All of them ordered hardware wallets Legder Nano S on eBay. One of them notes, the device he received was slightly different from what he saw in the reviews on YouTube.

Unlike the original wallets, the Nano S, received from a malicious seller with eBay, at the first start does not prompt the user to create a new account or restore the old one. He does not offer to set a PIN; in the described cases the PIN-code was indicated in the accompanying document, which is not included with the original Nano S.

The same document contains a seed-phrase consisting of 24 words, hidden under the protective layer. Ledger Nano S, which has no traces of intruders, creates it with the PIN code the first time it is launched.

One of the users of Reddit writes, these differences seemed suspicious to him, so before using the wallet, he returned it to the manufacturer’s settings, which allowed him to save his cryptocurrency assets. Another owner of the same wallet was less fortunate and transferred XRP, Litecoin and Dash to him for more than £ 25,000. It’s not hard to guess that when he decided to check the value of his savings, the money was already on an address unknown to him.

Perhaps ordering a device for storing cryptocurrency in a third party is not a good idea. If you have already become the owner of a wallet with the traces of an intruder, return it to the manufacturer’s settings, set the PIN and seed-phrase yourself and only after that transfer your digital assets to it.

By Leonid Tsuypa
blockchaininvest.io