A well-known crypto blogger on Twitter helped to catch cryptocurrency fraudsters

The French authorities used the research of ZachXBT, a blockchain researcher known on Twitter, to charge five people with stealing $ 2.5 million worth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It is reported that the criminals stole the digital assets through phishing attacks. The fraudsters created a website that imitated the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFT illustration animation service. After switching to this site, users lost their tokens.

Christophe Durand, deputy head of France’s national cyber unit, said he learned about the incident after researching ZachXBT on Twitter. Durand said that «ZachXBT launched an investigation in response to requests from the community of Bored Ape Yacht Club owners whose tokens were stolen.»

ZachXBT on its Twitter account expressed joy that the work was recognized by official authorities despite the fact that crypto bloggers consider themselves an independent expert who works exclusively for donations from cryptocurrency enthusiasts and is not funded by any government. ZachXBT also referred to his original article from August 9, which he said helped launch the investigation.

Here’s the working link to my article that started it all!https://t.co/HkR0GLyaUU

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 12, 2022

By the way, the criminals exposed by ZachXBT are under 20 years old, and the young hackers have been using their fraudulent scheme involving phishing attacks for almost a year.

At the end of September, ZachXBT created a Twitter thread where they accused cryptocurrency investor and bitcoin blogger Lark Davis of Pump & Dump schemes. The author of the thread gave eight examples of how Davis' wallet (the address was publicly available) received tokens from new cryptocurrency projects with low capitalization. After publishing advertising posts, the blogger sold the coins he received. ZachXBT believes that Davis fraudulently earned more than $ 1.2 million.