Two cybercriminals held in record-breaking $243m crypto theft

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Two criminals have been arrested with links to a massive $243 million cryptocurrency fraud.

The fraud, which took place on August 19, 2024, involved a detailed social engineering scheme targeting a Genesis creditor.

The perpetrators, with their online aliases Greavys (Malone Iam), Wiz (Veer Chetal), and Box (Jeandiel Serrano), executed a series of deceptive manoeuvres to gain access to the victim’s digital assets.

A thread posted by crypto investigator ZachXBT stated that the criminals impersonated Google Support, using fake phone numbers to convince the victim to reset their two-factor authentication (2FA) and share sensitive private keys.

Consequently, the fraudsters manipulated the victim’s trust, claiming to have hacked their account when contacting Gemini support, which ultimately led to a successful 2FA reset.

Using remote access software, they gained insight into the victim’s screen and extracted critical information that allowed them to transfer substantial amounts of cryptocurrency to their wallets.

Key transactions linked to the fraud included three major transfers: the first, involving 59.34 BTC, occurred at 1:48 AM UTC, followed by another 14.88 BTC at 2:30 AM UTC, and a staggering 4,064 BTC at 4:05 AM UTC.

The investigation relied on advanced blockchain analysis and social media monitoring, which unveiled the lavish lifestyles of the suspects.

Greavys, in particular, was known for flaunting his wealth, reportedly spending hundreds of thousands on nightlife in LA and Miami, while sharing his extravagant purchases online.

With support from the Binance Security Team and forensic investigators, authorities traced the criminals’ online footprints and conducted arrests in Miami and Los Angeles.

During these operations, law enforcement seized additional assets and managed to freeze over $9 million of the stolen funds, with more than $500,000 already returned to the victim.