BradoIlleszt MetaMask Phishing Loss

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MetaMask

Reddit user BradoIlleszt reports that on June 16th they lost 8.12666451 Ether (worth $19,241.50 at the time) by providing their Ledger seed phrase to a fraudulent MetaMask wallet. They found the wallet via a Google search, where it was the top advertising result, installed it, and entered the seed phrase in a moment of weak judgement despite having a hardware wallet and knowing better.

There does not appear to have been any success in determining and chasing down whoever took the funds despite multiple reports being filed. It does not seem that any of the funds will be recovered.

This exchange or platform is based in Canada, or the incident targeted people primarily in Canada.

About MetaMask

"I started accumulating around 1700 and developed a solid portfolio." "I was looking into doing some de fi stuff with pancake swap." "I had my ETH stored on [a] hardware wallet."

"He posted 43 days ago about 8 Eth that went to his [L]edger."

"I googled MetaMask and I guess I clicked on the “Ad” Metamask." "[T]he ad links it was either metannask . Com or download - metamask . Com." "I downloaded Metamask." "I then selected import wallet and thats when it asked for my recovery phrase etc." "My mind was on autopilot and was not thinking what I was doing."

"I attempted to import my wallet and supplied the recovery phrase (I know lol)." "The sad thing was I used a hard wallet and I don’t know what went through my mind to try and import it to MetaMask. It wasn’t even necessary." "I didn’t plan to move it all to MetaMask, idk what I was thinking. I wasn’t I guess. It was safe in a cold wallet and my dumbass didn’t think." "I completely dropped the ball."

"The problem wasn't actually metamask, but that he didn't get metamask." "I suspect I downloaded MetaMask from an illegitimate site." "[I]t looks like it was from a phishing site, imported my wallet and all of my ETH was stolen." "That was the mistake I made." "Please do not go to these sites and set anything up (obvious but as my post shows sometimes people dont think lol)." "Essentially what I think happened was I downloaded an illegitimate plug in and when I imported my wallet, they accessed it using my recovery phrase and transferred the funds out."

"I lost a total of 8.13 ETH yesterday. My entire initial investment + almost $10K in profits." "I wish I could have recovered some. I reached out to some cybersecurity law firms but they seemed sketch and I didn’t want to risk getting scammed again." "5 figures+?"

"All gone and future gains gone to the oerson who stole it. Its a terrible feeling and its even worse because you can see the transaction and where the ETH is sitting. Gut wrenching really."

"I don’t really know what to do or think. I took all actions, filing a police report, NFIB report. Contacting Metamask, binance, I even tried tracking the transactions myself." "I[']ve reported the domain to google." "I felt so dumb filing the [police] report, but I figured you never know. Graspin at straws on that one haha."

"[H]ave you gleaned any info about the account your crypto went to?" "I saw some transactions on the binance smart chain. Wasnt sure if that’d be worth looking into." "I noticed transactions on the Binance Smart Chain and wondered if Binance could assist, no luck." "I found a lot of info, but just transactions, so not much. No comments or anything on the transactions. It is terrible."

"It shows a transaction from my wallet address to another wallet address that I’m not aware of…" "Th[e] address [where the funds were sent] currently holds 9.12 ether." "[M]ost of it is mine. They transferred some out already."

"Lesson learned." "The money will come. The one part though that keeps pulling me down is how much my ETH will be worth down the line. I think about that and it drags me down hard. I had my whole investment strategy worked out and when I’d take profits, where I’d diversify those profits and now its just completely gone."

"I don’t blame metamask at all. I blame myself because it was my mistake." "Now looking back I wish I wasn’t so friggen dumb. All it took was one glance and I didnt even bother to do that." "I’m focusing on starting over and accumulating again. In a few years I should offset the losses."

"Definitely can’t stop investing in crypto!! My mom had a hard wallet she didnt use so I spun it up on a different computer and moved the little bit I had onto it already and invested a small portion of my normal savings." "I transferred what I had from left in Binance to my new wallet."

"I’m just posting this as a reminder for anyone that sees this. Please be extra careful, think not twice but three times before you execute a trade or move aby of your crypto. Just avoid this dumb browser extension wallets at all costs."

This exchange or platform is based in Canada, or the incident targeted people primarily in Canada.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - BradoIlleszt MetaMask Phishing Loss

Date	Event	Description
June 16th, 2021 9:33:14 AM MDT	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost has been estimated at $19,000 USD.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

General Prevention Policies

Always visit websites through their official URL only, by using bookmarks or typing the address yourself. If you use a hardware wallet, never enter your seed phrase outside of it's hardware. Keep the majority of funds in an offline cold storage wallet. When setting up a new wallet, always set it up with a new wallet address and a small amount of funds, and never use your main wallet.

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.