- Woman loses $250,000 Bitcoin after using a compromised cold wallet device.
- Fake wallet bought on JD.com drains entire Bitcoin balance.
- Security firm warns against using preloaded wallets from marketplaces.
A woman has lost her entire Bitcoin holdings worth nearly $250,000 after unknowingly purchasing a compromised hardware wallet through a third-party store on JD.com. The incident was confirmed by blockchain security firm SlowMist, which revealed that the wallet had been tampered with before it reached the victim.
The victim purchased an imToken-branded hardware wallet that was seemingly sold by a legit vendor on the most well-known Chinese marketplace, JD.com, which later went out of business.
She believed that the wallet was secure and transferred 4.35 BTC from her account on OKX on July 26 in several transactions. In the second round, she realized that the amount had been cleared from her wallet balance two days later.
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She was surprised when, after reviewing the history of transactions, she learned that all her Bitcoin had been transferred to the addresses she did not know about. As the investigation revealed, the scammers precharged the wallet with a seed phrase, which gave them access to it entirely as soon as they received money.
Such a fraud is referred to as the preloaded wallet scam, in which scammers sell activated wallets that they have secret control over. Victims fail to reset the wallets or create new seed phrases, and thus, any funds on their end are exposed.
Fake Wallet Listings on Marketplaces Still Pose a Major Threat
SlowMist confirmed this was a classic case of an old scam that still finds new victims through online marketplaces. Fraudsters tend to identify themselves as legitimate sellers and offer wallets at a reasonable price to unsuspecting customers.
Users are encouraged not to buy hardware wallets from third-party sellers, regardless of whether the site looks legitimate. To avoid scams, wallets must always be purchased by visiting official manufacturer websites, thus authenticating the company and assuring security.
Besides that, any new wallet should be reset, followed by creating a new seed phrase, before usage. Specialists also advise sending a small amount of crypto at first to be sure about the wallet’s security before transferring larger amounts.
As scams like this continue to circulate, security professionals stress the importance of proper education on how cold wallets function. Staying alert and informed remains crucial to safeguarding digital assets.
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