A new fraudulent service named “Inferno Drainer” has allegedly purloined close to $6 million from unassuming crypto users, as reported by Scam Sniffer, a Web3 scam detection firm. Inferno Drainer is said to offer pre-packaged code to fraudsters, enabling them to pilfer cryptocurrency in return for a 20% share of the fraudsters’ ill-gotten crypto gains.
This fraudulent service was unearthed by a security aficionado and anonymous Twitter user 0xSaiyanGod, who stumbled upon a promoter of the scheme on the Scam Sniffer Telegram channel. Saiyan reported the alleged fraudster to the channel, sparking an investigation by the security service. Scam Sniffer discovered a screenshot depicting a $103,000 drain transaction employing a Permit2 exploit, a type of phishing scam that simplifies the token approval process.
According to Scam Sniffer, the screenshot displayed the transaction hash of the theft, which led the team to locate the transaction and consequently, the perpetrator’s address. Scam Sniffer subsequently found that this address was linked to over 689 phishing sites established since March 27, and had siphoned off $5.9 million from victims across various networks, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, and BNB Chain. Scam Sniffer developed a Dune analytics dashboard to present data that supports these findings.
As per the report, Inferno Drainer touted its “service” to fraudsters for a 20% slice of the earnings. It also offered to construct phishing sites for clients for a 30% cut, but this was exclusive to “good customers or individuals with significant potential.”
The issue of fraud as a service has become increasingly prevalent in the crypto space in recent months. A similar service named “Monkey Drainer” was detected by ZachXBT in October. It managed to drain at least $1 million in ETH from users before ceasing operations in March.
