Key Takeaways

A user lost nearly $1 million in USDC to a scam tied to a malicious contract signed 458 days earlier. Experts warn that this delayed exploit trend is becoming a go-to strategy for crypto thieves.

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A crypto user lost $908,551 in USD Coin [USDC] after falling victim to a wallet-draining scam that exploited a malicious contract approval signed over 15 months ago.

According to onchain data, the victim approved a malicious smart contract on the 30th of April 2024, most likely through a fake airdrop or a phishing site disguised as a legitimate platform.

Following this, the scammer patiently waited for nearly 16 months before executing the final blow on the 2nd of August 2025, draining the victim’s wallet of nearly a million dollars in USDC.

How old wallet approvals can turn scary

The attack traced back to an ERC-20 approval that silently gave access to a scammer wallet “0x67E5Ae” linked to the pink-drainer.eth address.

The contract allowed token transfers without any further user confirmation.

According to Scam Sniffer, who flagged the incident on X, the theft occurred a staggering 458 days after the victim unknowingly approved the malicious transaction.

Soon after this, Scam Sniffer took to X and noted, 

“Regularly review and revoke old approvals – your wallet security matters!”

In this case, the compromised wallet had previously shown only minor, low-value activity, which likely helped it fly under the radar.

How did this start?

Things took a sharp turn on the 2nd of July.

The victim moved $762,397 USDC from MetaMask to a new wallet (0x6c0eB6) at 8:41 PM UTC.

Just ten minutes later, they topped it up with another $146,154 from a Kraken account. These movements were public on-chain and likely alerted the scammer.

Instead of acting right away, the attacker waited another month, likely to confirm no reversal or additional deposits. And then struck at 4:57 a.m. UTC on the 2nd of August.

The stolen funds were sent to an address labeled Fake_Phishing322880 and flagged by Scam Sniffer as malicious.

Scams getting smarter

This shows that the surge in crypto-related scams is growing more sophisticated by the day, as bad actors exploit both technology and trust.

From AI-generated deepfakes of Ripple executives to impersonated YouTube channels promoting fake XRP giveaways, scammers are leveraging realism to deceive unsuspecting users.

At the same time, the resurfacing of a colossal 16-billion-record credential leak has heightened the risks across platforms.

In one alarming instance, a targeted phishing attack used a blend of urgency, impersonation, and cross-platform manipulation to fool even a seasoned cybersecurity expert. 

Even experienced users have fallen prey.

Even cybersecurity analyst Christopher Rosa fell for a phishing scam using spoofed emails, fake Coinbase calls, and coordinated social engineering.

The takeaway is blunt but vital: old approvals don’t expire, and attackers don’t forget.

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