
The fraud utilised a tactic known as “zero value transfer.” This subtle on-chain cheating has grown in both frequency and refinement.
According to blockchain security company Cyvers, the attacker first steered the victim to send $843,000 worth of Tether (USDT). Just a few hours later, the same victim sent an additional $2.6 million USDT without her knowledge. At this point, we have now become the same spoofed wallet address that was used in previous attacks. This one-two punch is a case of an “address addiction” textbook, and is a deceptive trick that manipulates transaction history to gain misguided trust.
How Zero Value Fishing Works
At the heart of this scam is a clever abuse of how crypto wallets display transaction history. The attacker uses to initiate a transaction transfer Token Contract Features, Send zero Tokens into the victim’s wallet from appearance or spoofed address. Blockchain doesn’t require victim signatures because funds are not moving, but transactions still appear in history.
Alerts
Our system detected approximately 2.6m $ usdt Loss from target address addiction fraud, including zero value forwarding. One victim was repeatedly scamned by the same attacker’s address.
First, the victim lost 843k $ usdt.
About three hours later, the same victim sent 1.75m… pic.twitter.com/wwvlrzvavk
–
Cyber Alert
(@cyversalerts) May 26, 2025
If the victim then wants to transfer the actual funds (for example, to a reliable address). That’s where the traps gush out. The attacker receives real funds, leaving the victim with catastrophic losses. This tactic has gained traction.
Crypto Hack Details
In 2021, a crypto investor named Brian lost $78,000. That was after falling into a sophisticated crypto phishing scam that included fake ledger devices. Despite following all security best practices, he received a presumably counterfeit “exchange” ledger in the mail due to past data breach.
This ledger can steal your money
Brian did everything right: cold wallet, secure setup, no phishing.
However, a fake “exchange” ledger ejected the code in a few minutes.
Here’s how fraud works and how to protect your encryption
pic.twitter.com/cqkimzmg6n
– nonzee (@0xnanceense) May 25, 2025
The device was preloaded with malware and tricked him into entering a recovery phrase. This scam is rooted in social engineering and stolen customer data. It shows that even cold wallets are not entirely difficult without proper verification procedures.

Disclaimer
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The $2.5 million loss in double crypto phishing scam first appeared on Altcoin Buzz.