Musician loses $420K Bitcoin 'retirement fund' via fake Ledger app

6 months ago

Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT said Garrett Dutton’s 5.9 Bitcoin has already been sent to deposit addresses associated with KuCoin.

Garrett Dutton, an American instrumentalist amended known arsenic “G. Love,” said helium mislaid $420,000 worthy of Bitcoin aft installing a malicious app impersonating the self-custody crypto app Ledger Live from Apple’s App Store and entering his effect phrase.

“I had a truly pugnacious day,” Dutton told his 67,500 followers successful a station connected X connected Saturday, adding that helium mislaid his 5.9 Bitcoin (BTC) stash “in an instant” aft spending astir 10 years accumulating the coins to unafraid his retirement.

Source: Garrett Dutton

In a follow-up post, crypto sleuth ZachXBT said that Dutton’s Bitcoin has been sent to deposit addresses linked to the crypto speech KuCoin crossed 9 transactions. KuCoin replied to the station with a connection typically addressed to customers.

The incidental highlights a continued occupation that atrocious actors person posed successful the crypto industry. On Tuesday, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that Americans mislaid implicit $11 cardinal from crypto-related incidents successful 2025, up from the $9 cardinal recorded the erstwhile year.

Related: Hong Kong retiree loses $840K successful triple ‘crypto expert’ scam

Dutton said helium was tricked into sharing his effect operation aft downloading the malicious bundle connected his caller Apple MacBook Neo but didn’t stock which nexus helium used.

“I been successful the crypto circus since 2017. Today they caught maine disconnected guard. It was my ain damn responsibility for not being much diligent. But fto it service arsenic a warning. There's truthful galore scams,” helium added.

Cointelegraph was incapable to find the fake Ledger app connected Apple's App Store astatine the clip of writing. Cointelegraph reached retired to Apple for remark but did not person an contiguous response.

Fake Ledger apps person appeared connected Microsoft’s store

Scammers person been adopting this fake Ledger app strategy since astatine slightest 2023.

That year, astir $600,000 worthy of Bitcoin was stolen from respective users who downloaded a fake Ledger Live exertion from Microsoft’s app store.

Microsoft admitted that the malicious app had bypassed its reappraisal process and took it down soon after.

Magazine: Asia Express: Phantom Bitcoin checks, China tracks taxation connected blockchain

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