Crypto VC partner loses ‘life savings’ during fake Zoom call

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Mehdi Farooq, an concern spouse astatine crypto task superior steadfast Hypersphere, revealed connected Thursday that helium mislaid a important information of his beingness savings successful a targeted phishing onslaught orchestrated done a fake Zoom call.

In a post connected X, Farooq explained that the onslaught began with a connection connected Telegram from Alex Lin, idiosyncratic helium knew. “He wanted to drawback up,” Farooq recounted.

The 2 had antecedently interacted, making the outreach look routine. Farooq past shared his Calendly nexus with Lin, who scheduled a gathering for the adjacent day.

Minutes earlier the scheduled call, Lin asked to power to Zoom Business “for compliance reasons,” adding that 1 of his LPs, Kent, different acquainted name, would beryllium joining. Given that Farooq had been managing treasury deals, the petition didn’t rise suspicion.

Zoom update punctual leads to afloat wallet drain

Farooq said helium joined the scheduled Zoom telephone to find determination was nary audio, though some participants appeared connected screen. In the chat, they instructed him to update Zoom to hole the issue. Shortly aft moving the update, his strategy was compromised.

“Six wallets drained (my responsibility for not keeping things much buttoned up). My laptop compromised completely,” helium wrote.

Farooq added that portion the onslaught was underway, the impersonator continued chatting connected Telegram arsenic if thing was wrong. “He adjacent joked: ‘Let’s drawback up astatine SG.’” The hackers yet drained “years of savings… successful minutes.”

He aboriginal discovered that Alex Lin’s existent relationship had been hijacked. According to Farooq, the onslaught was linked to a North Korea-affiliated menace histrion known arsenic “dangrouspassword.”

Earlier this year, Farooq joined Hypersphere arsenic an concern partner, focusing connected liquid and task opportunities. He antecedently spent astir 3 years astatine Animoca Brands.

Cointelegraph reached retired to Farooq for comment but had not received a effect by publication.

Phishing attacks people crypto pros

The caller breach comes amid the increasing sophistication of phishing attacks targeting crypto professionals.

Last month, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe revealed that scammers impersonating hardware wallet shaper Ledger are mailing fake letters to crypto users, urging them to “validate” their wallets oregon hazard losing entree to funds. The letters, sent via USPS, contained QR codes apt starring to phishing sites.

In April 2025, $330 cardinal successful Bitcoin (BTC) was stolen from an aged individual done a phishing attack, onchain detective ZackXBT confirmed.

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