The team behind the notorious crypto scam service, Inferno Drainer, recently failed to launder a substantial amount of ETH after the privacy protocol Railgun blocked their transaction. Security firm MistTrack reported that on July 9, the team attempted to launder over 175 Ether, equivalent to around $540,000. The transaction was flagged by the tracking service Scam Sniffer, which identified 365.7 ETH being transferred by a phishing scammer associated with Inferno Drainer. Of this amount, approximately 190.7 ETH was sent to a wallet identified as “0x0fc2e,” while the rest was transferred to a smart contract wallet linked with Railgun.
Railgun is a privacy chain protocol that uses zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge (ZK SNARKs) to obscure blockchain transactions. This technology allows users to hide their wallet addresses, making it appealing to bad actors seeking to evade law enforcement. However, in this case, Railgun’s Private Proofs of Innocence (Private POI) system rejected Inferno Drainer’s transaction, preventing the attacker from withdrawing the funds.
Despite Railgun’s intervention, Inferno Drainer has managed to launch over 9000 phishing websites targeting various crypto and NFT projects. The service charges a 30% fee for creating phishing websites and an additional 20% for each successful theft. Estimates suggest that the malware has stolen over $180 million in crypto from nearly 190,000 victims since its inception in August 2023.
Interestingly, the team behind Inferno Drainer announced plans to discontinue its services in a Telegram post last year, cautioning subscribers to be wary of imposters. Meanwhile, Railgun has faced controversies, including allegations of money laundering by North Korean hackers. The project has denied these claims and has received support from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who believes that privacy is a fundamental right.