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Fake Ledger App Steals Millions in Bitcoin, Crypto From Holders—Including Musician G. Love
TL;DR
A fake Ledger Live app on the Mac App Store stole over $9.5 million in crypto from more than 50 users, including musician G. Love, who lost over $400,000. The fraudulent app was available from April 7 to April 13 before being removed.
Key points
- Fake Ledger Live app impersonated official software
- Over 50 users were affected by the scam
- More than $9.5 million in crypto was stolen
- G. Love lost over $400,000 in Bitcoin
- App was removed from the Mac App Store after a week
G. LoveKuCoinAudiA6
In brief
- A fake Ledger Live application in the Mac App Store swiped crypto from more than 50 users, according to analysis from ZachXBT.
- More than $9.5 million in crypto funds like Bitcoin, Solana, and XRP were stolen in total, the blockchain sleuth said.
- Musician G. Love was among the victims, losing more than $400,000 in Bitcoin to the scheme.
A fake Mac app impersonating Ledger’s self-custody software led to the loss of more than $9.5 million in crypto assets from over 50 total users in the last week, according to a new investigation from pseudonymous on-chain sleuth, ZachXBT.
The application, which pretended to be the Ledger Live app from which users can manage assets held by Ledger hardware devices, impacted victims from April 7 until April 13, when it was removed from the Apple App Store.
“Stolen funds were laundered via 150+ KuCoin deposit addresses tied to AudiA6, a centralized mixing service that charges high fees to launder illicit funds,” ZachXBT posted in a message to his Telegram channel.
According to his analysis, at least three victims lost more than $1.95 million apiece, with one wallet being drained of $3.27 million USDT. Swiped assets included Bitcoin, Solana, XRP, USDT, and others.
Musician G. Love—aka Garrett Dutton, frontman of the long-running rock band G. Love & Special Sauce—was among the victims impacted by the fake app, losing 5.92 BTC valued around $447,000. He shared his story on X over the weekend.
“I had a really tough day today. I lost my retirement fund in a hack/scam when I switched my Ledger over to my new computer and by accident downloaded a malicious Ledger app from the Apple Store,” he posted on X on April 11. “All my BTC gone in an instant.”
Hi I traced out your 5.92 BTC stolen and it was all laundered via @kucoincom deposit addresses in the following transactions:
Q&A
How much cryptocurrency was stolen by the fake Ledger app?
Over $9.5 million in cryptocurrency was stolen from users by the fake Ledger app.
Who were some of the victims of the fake Ledger Live application?
Musician G. Love was among the victims, losing more than $400,000 in Bitcoin.
When was the fake Ledger Live app available on the Mac App Store?
The fake app was available on the Mac App Store from April 7 until April 13.
How were the stolen funds laundered after the theft?
The stolen funds were laundered through over 150 KuCoin deposit addresses linked to a centralized mixing service called AudiA6.
