According to Chainalysis, a fraudster collected more than 60 BTC from victims using a recruitment scam tied to Ledger addresses.

Modus operandi

The attacker lured users with offers to earn money by inflating sales and leaving positive reviews on marketplaces and services.

After initial engagement, victims were asked to deposit funds to cover an alleged "negative balance" before receiving promised payouts.

Chainalysis findings

Chainalysis attributes the scheme to a single perpetrator who accumulated a total equivalent to $4.8 million in cryptocurrency from multiple victims.

The report indicates that the stolen funds were moved to three distinct Ledger-associated addresses on 22.09, according to transaction records compiled by Chainalysis.

Transaction timeline and consolidation

On 09.10 all three addresses were emptied, with proceeds forwarded to an address linked to prior thefts and laundering activity.

Chainalysis notes the consolidation pattern as consistent with efforts to obfuscate origin and prepare funds for further transfers or conversion.

Context and advice

Ledger is a hardware wallet provider commonly used to store private keys offline and is referenced by Chainalysis solely as an identifier in on-chain analysis.

Authorities and blockchain analysts recommend verifying counterparty offers and avoiding upfront deposits to unknown services promising guaranteed returns.