Scammer gets scammed in Ledger spy-chip exploit, loses almost $5 million in bitcoin

A crypto scammer who made millions tricking people by offering fake online jobs has fallen victim to another scam, losing bitcoin worth more than $4.9 million through compromised Ledger hardware wallets.

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said Thursday on X that the perpetrator had collected the bitcoin through a so-called task scam, in which people are initially paid to post fake product reviews or boost online sales. Then they are told their accounts have a negative balance and they must deposit their own money before they can withdraw their supposed earnings.

According to Chainalysis, the person behind the operation transferred the proceeds of the illegal activity to three Ledger wallet addresses, which thieves emptied, taking 60 BTC.

The incident adds a twist to the Ledger security breach involving devices sold by Southeast Asian reseller CryptoBilis. Investigators discovered unauthorized hardware implants capable of transmitting wallet recovery information over a mobile network, giving attackers access to the bitcoin stored on affected devices.