The Webaverse co-founder said he somehow hacked cryptocurrencies out of trust wallets during a meeting with two people who claimed to be investors.
The co-founder of Web3 metaverse game engine Webaverse has revealed he fell victim to a $4 million cryptocurrency hack after meeting scammers posing as investors in a hotel lobby in Rome.
According to co-founder Ahad Shams, the strange part of the story is that the cryptocurrency was stolen from the newly established Trust Wallet and the hack occurred during the conference.
He claims the thief may not have seen the private key, and at that point, he was not connected to a public WiFi network.
Shams believes the thieves managed to break in by taking pictures of the wallet balance.
The letter was shared on Twitter on Feb. 2. On the 7th, “Mr. Safra” was announced on November 26th after several weeks of discussions about possible funding.
“We said, ‘Mr. Safra said over email and a video call that he wanted to invest in an exciting Web3 company,'” Shams explains.
“He explained to cryptocurrency officials that he had been scammed before, so he made it a condition that we collect our IDs for KYC and fly to Rome to meet him. Because it’s important to meet and to be “comfortable” with whoever they did. deal with,” he added.
Shams, who was initially dubious, learned that “Mr. Safra” had to begin with “paperwork” before they actually met in person in a hotel lobby in Rome.
“I reluctantly agreed to the Trust Wallet ‘evidence’, but created a new Trust Wallet account at home, primarily using a device I didn’t use for transactions. Without a private key or seed, he thought the funds were safe,” he says.
“When we met, we sat across from these three men and transferred 4m USDC into the Trust Wallet. ‘Mr. Safra’ asked to see the balances on the Trust Wallet app and took out his phone to ‘take some pictures’.”
Shams is “Mr. Safra” But once “Mr. Safra” left the briefing room, ostensibly to consult his fellow bankers, but never returned. Shams then saw the funds siphoned off.
Shortly after, Shams reported the theft to the local police station in Rome, and a few days later filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, which filed an Internet Crime Complaint (IC3).
Mr. Shams, “Mr. Safra” and his crook crew carried out the exploit.
“The interim update from the ongoing investigations is that we are still unable to confidently establish the attack vector. The investigators have reviewed the available evidence and engaged in lengthy interviews with the relevant persons but further technical information is necessary for them to come to confidently establish conclusions.”
“Specifically, we need more information from Trust Wallet regarding activity on emptied wallets to reach a technical conclusion, and we are actively tracking their records. This will give us a better understanding of how this unfolded,” he added.
