Ledger and TrustWallet Cryptocurrency Theft wuay

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Ledger

Reddit user wuay reported that their cryptocurrency (valued at over $40k) was removed from their Ledger and TrustWallet. While they admit to storing the TrustWallet seed phrase online on their iCloud, they insist that the Ledger seed phrase was only stored via a paper copy.

It seems most likely that wuay had a screenshot of the Ledger seed phrase, or was using the same seed phrase for both wallets. When combined with a weak password on the iCloud account, this would have allowed a thief to get into the account and obtain both seed phrases.

The thief appears to have stolen cryptocurrency from multiple users. They don't appear to be using a mixer to obscure their tracks, so can likely be determined. It was reported that TrustWallet did not respond and it is unclear if Ledger has responded. wuay does not appear to have posted anything further on their thread.

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

About Ledger

"I spent years earning [cryptocurrency] and resisting pulling it out, hoping I could eventually use it to pay for college tuition." "[M]y cryptocurrency [was] valued over $40,000."

"I have a Ledger Nano S wallet." "That wallet had 4.77 LTC, 4.48 ETH, and 0.73 BTC." "It was directly from ledger sealed and everything. Even generated the seed phrase myself." "The Ledger generated a passphrase containing 24 words." "I recorded that passphrase on a piece of paper and hid it." "I used telegram, discord, and reddit regularly. Used known exchanges to transfer crypto. I was using a ledger nano s with only 24 seeds not 25 and downloaded ledger live directly from the website."

"No one had or has access to that paper." "That passphrase (those words) were NEVER entered anywhere. (Not even on my phone)." "Did not have the 25th digit only 24 passphrase." "[N]o one has ever been in the vicinity of where I stored [the seed phrase]. And the time of the transactions where in the middle of the night when no one is awake. And the history shows that it has stolen even more from other people."

"Trust wallet was saved to cloud cause it didn’t have much at the time so didn’t think it mattered, but now the value went up and it did. Ledger seed was never put online at all only on paper." "Bought [the wallet] directly from Ledger sealed years ago. And it was on trust wallet around the same time."

"I also has a Trust Wallet." "I had $1500 worth of NPXS and $1000 worth of TRX in that wallet." "The passphrase for the Trust Wallet is saved as a screenshot on my iPhone." "My iPhone has not left my possession." "My iPhone has a 6 digit passcode."

"[M]ost Apple devices backup to iCloud by default. OP maybe even doesn’t know." "Anyone with access to the phone would know it. Including anyone working for Apple." "It is my understanding that icloud backs up your data even if you haven't set it up. Your user name is your email, which I believe is no different than your itunes email. Your password is also the same. So getting into icloud is fairly easy, and if course it includes your photos and screen shots." "OP doesn't seem to know the difference between a passphrase and 24 word seed. This is unfortunate and suggests user error was to blame for all of this."

"On February 24th at 6:48 AM and 6:55 AM both of those were stolen." "On February 24th at 5:45 AM Eastern Time, the BTC was stolen." "On the same day, at 6:46 AM and 6:48 AM, the ETH and LTC, respectively, were stolen." "Just looked at my wallet [March 26th] when I was thinking of buying more bitcoin, all to to find out all my cryptocurrency is gone."

"Both wallets were hacked on the same day at around the same time. Both had separate passphrases."

"The recipient address for the BTC is: 3EP2Bq6yMpXQc3TvoxLtwDsd1tg2A59CJs" "[T]he thief’s wallet address for BTC has other larger transactions." "[I]t is still known where the funds are. They are parked on [a single address]. {T]herefore still possible to track (not sent to a mixer at least)."

"I'm really devastated." "I’m thinking of bringing it up to authorities. Probably won’t do anything but worth a shot." "[TrustWallet] never responded back to me. I just decided to start from scratch with riskier investments."

"I don't think it's fud, just the op is forgetting stuff or omitting something. My first guess is that he probably had a backup of his ledger passphrase on his iPhone too. His iCloud probably got hacked containing both of his passphrases."

"Confirmation that the Ledger device and it's firmware are verified as legitimate might be a good step. Then expand that confirmation to every one of your assumptions until something stands out as unreconciled. Include assumptions about your privacy when entering or recording seed words and any potential for eavesdropping."

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

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 - Ledger and TrustWallet Cryptocurrency Theft wuay

Date	Event	Description
February 24th, 2021 3:45:00 AM MST	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 $47,000 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?

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.