Scammer who duped job seekers loses $4.9 million in bitcoin to Ledger spy-chip exploit
Chainalysis says a fraudster who tricked people through fake online jobs became one of the biggest victims of the compromised hardware wallets.
By Olivier Acuna|Edited by Sheldon Reback
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Summary
A crypto scammer who made millions tricking people by offering fake online jobs has fallen victim to another scam, losing bitcoin worth more than $4.9 million through compromised Ledger hardware wallets.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said Thursday on X that the perpetrator had collected the bitcoin through a so-called task scam, in which people are initially paid to post fake product reviews or boost online sales. Then they are told their accounts have a negative balance and they must deposit their own money before they can withdraw their supposed earnings.
According to Chainalysis, the person behind the operation transferred the proceeds of the illegal activity to three Ledger wallet addresses, which thieves emptied, taking 60 BTC.
The incident adds a twist to the Ledger security breach involving devices sold by Southeast Asian reseller CryptoBilis. Investigators discovered unauthorized hardware implants capable of transmitting wallet recovery information over a mobile network, giving attackers access to the bitcoin stored on affected devices.
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Sep 24, 2026
Why it matters:
Diversified RWA stablecoins sustain 5-7% yield from real credit as crypto funding compresses to ~4%. GENIUS pushes yield off-chain; TAM grows to $4B in 3 years.