Monkey Drainer is closing permanently. The criminal service gained notoriety last year after some high-profile robberies. It was involved in a scam of more than 700 ETH in October 2022.
Notorious NFT and cryptocurrency scammer Monkey Drainer is shutting down his phishing smart contract “Scam as a Service” deals. The service has been popular with hackers, with a 30% cut for services.
Monkey Drainer, a service often described as a “Scam as a Service”, is set to shut down its service. Cryptosecurity firm PeckShield tweeted on March 1 that the scammer would shut down the service, with 200 ETH (approximately $330,000) transferred to Tornado Cash in the last 24 hours.
The Drainer still has 840 ETH, worth approximately $1.4 million, in its wallet.
PeckShield also posted an image of a Monkey Drainer message, which said that the scammer would be shut down immediately. The latter’s message even went so far as to say that it was an “experience at the service of other hackers.”
Monkey Drainer will destroy all files, servers and devices related to it and “will not come back”. The general sentiment of the message was one of boldness and lack of remorse.
The closure may have resulted from the heightened forensic scrutiny the market has recently experienced. Authorities have paid more attention to cryptocurrency-related cybercrime, especially as companies like Lazarus Group have made the cryptocurrency market a primary target.
Who Is Monkey Drainer?
Monkey Drainer is notorious in the crypto space, having helped bad actors drain over $24 million, operating various scams via Twitter. Phishing is a commonly used tactic. The service has been running since 2022 and caught the attention of security researchers shortly after its launch.
Monkey Drainer would keep a 30% share of the stolen money. Unfortunately, the methods have inspired imitators, many of whom explicitly claim that Monkey was responsible for inspiring them to take up the same line of work.
Orchestrating Grand Thefts
The Monkey Drainer saga has been entertaining the crypto community for a while now. In January 2023, CertiK stated that it discovered the identities of two scammers behind the nickname. The scammer could have a residence in Russia if the CertiK deductions are correct.
“The Monkey Drainer kit and similar phishing tools utilize “ice phishing” to trick users into giving the scammers unlimited power to spend their tokens,” read a tweet by CertiK, posted on February 28.
CertiK further added that their investigators “uncovered two scammers, Zentoh and Kai, behind the Monkey Drainer kit.”
The end of October was particularly fruitful for the scammer, with the contract stealing over 700 ETH in 24 hours. The stolen assets include a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, stablecoins, and other NFTs.
By Audy Castaneda
