A staggering sum of nearly $600,000 in Bitcoin has been swindled from unsuspecting users who fell prey to a fraudulent Ledger Live application masquerading on Microsoft’s app store.
The revelation comes from the vigilant cryptocurrency investigator, ZachXBT.
On November 5th, ZachXBT unearthed the ruse named “Ledger Live Web3,” designed to deceive users into believing they were downloading the legitimate “Ledger Live” interface, primarily used for managing Ledger hardware wallets, where cryptocurrencies are securely stored offline.
The scam artist has managed to amass approximately 16.8 BTC, equivalent to $588,000, via 38 transactions using the wallet address “bc1q….y64q,” as reported by Blockchain.com.
Two transactions have seen about $115,200 exit the fraudster’s wallet, leaving a balance of $473,800 or 13.5 BTC.
In a subsequent update, ZachXBT hinted that Microsoft might have taken action by removing the counterfeit Ledger Live app from its platform.
The illicit activities involving this wallet began on October 24th, with an initial transfer of $5,210 to the scammer’s address. Before that, the wallet remained dormant.
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Notably, most of the transactions transpired after November 2nd, with the largest sum of $81,200 vanishing from victims’ wallets on November 4th.
A scrutiny by Cointelegraph unveiled that the deceptive “Ledger Live Web3” application had infiltrated Microsoft’s app store as early as October 19th.
The severity of this situation prompted victims to reach out to ZachXBT, with one victim even suggesting that Microsoft should bear responsibility for allowing the fraudulent Ledger Live app onto their platform.
This incident isn’t the first instance where a counterfeit Ledger Live app has infiltrated Microsoft’s app store.
In the past, Ledger’s support account on social media, X (formerly Twitter), had alerted users to similar scams, occurring twice in December and March.
Although Ledger has not issued a statement regarding this particular scam, they have consistently urged users to obtain Ledger Live exclusively from their official website, ledger.com.
Cointelegraph attempted to contact Microsoft for a response but has yet to receive a reply, raising concerns about the security and oversight of applications within their app store.
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