- On October 24th, the first payment of $5,210 was made to the scammer’s wallet address.
- The bogus Ledger Live app is no longer available on Microsoft’s store.
According to crypto researcher ZachXBT, over $600,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) was stolen from consumers who downloaded a bogus Ledger Live app on Microsoft’s app store. On November 5th, an on-chain researcher discovered a hoax called “Ledger Live Web3” that pretends to be a user interface for crypto hardware wallets made by the company Ledger.
Based on analysis of 38 separate transactions, Blockchain.com estimates that the scammer has received 16.8 BTC (about $588,000) in total. Two withdrawals totaling around $115,200 mean that the scammer now has $473,800, or 13.5 BTC, in their wallet.
Moreover, ZachXBT followed up on his first article by pointing out that the bogus Ledger Live app may no longer be available on Microsoft’s store.
Earlier Warnings
On October 24th, the first payment of $5,210 was made to the scammer’s wallet address. Also, that was the first time the wallet had been used. Most of these exchanges happened after November 2, with the highest being a payment of $81,200 on November 4.
After receiving two messages from victims on November 4, ZachXBT said Microsoft “should be held liable” for enabling the bogus Ledger Live app to be distributed via the Microsoft Store. Furthermore, this isn’t the first time a fraudulent version of Ledger Live has been distributed via the Microsoft Store.
Also, on two consecutive occasions between December and March, the Ledger support account on Twitter warned its customers of a fraudulent Ledger Live app. However, Ledger has reminded its consumers again and time again that ledger.com is the “only safe place” to obtain Ledger Live.
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