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A crypto trader was tricked into transferring about $2.1 million in $USDT after scammers used a compromised Telegram account to impersonate his business partner. On-chain investigator VAL detailed the case in a post on X.
The victim first sent a $10 $USDT test payment and received confirmation from the compromised account. He then transferred 2,151,772 $USDT. The attackers deleted the Telegram conversation the following morning and stopped responding.
1/ How an individual lost $2.1M $USDT to a high level social engineering scam
— VAL (@osint_based) September 14, 2026
He even sent a test transfer first and got a confirmation back
Here's how it was done through a Telegram chat, how $1M got frozen by Tether, and where the rest of the funds went pic.twitter.com/FlPviz2XvN
Tether Freezes $1 Million
The stolen $USDT was moved to another wallet and converted into TRX before reaching deposit addresses linked to MaskEX. Investigators traced about half of the funds through subsequent withdrawals.
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Tether froze a wallet containing about $1 million on Oct. 29, six days after the theft. The funds remain frozen as the victim seeks to recover the money.
Investigators Trace Remaining Funds
VAL said timing analysis helped investigators identify a wallet holding the remaining funds. The address has shown no activity for two months.
Investigators used blockchain transaction records and exchange data to follow the stolen assets and identify where the funds moved after the initial transfer.
Related: Bitget Protection Fund Hits $441M as Bitcoin Rally Boosts Reserves
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