How Crypto Scammers Stole Data Using Hijacked Italian Government Email Address

Crypto scammers have been illegally accessing Twitter’s legal request portal through an Italian government email address and targeting popular accounts asking for sensitive information.

Until now, scammers used to impersonate crypto projects and popular influencers for their illicit intentions. But now they have now upped their game by misusing the Twitter legal request portal.

Scammers Hijack Italian Government Email Addresses

The on-chain sleuth ZachXBT wrote a thread on X (formerly known as Twitter) to shed light on the latest malpractices of crypto scammers. He highlighted that scammers have stolen Italian government’s email addresses and are making fake requests to the X legal request portal.

For example, he explained how crypto scammers requested sensitive information for Arbitrum’s official X accounts, impersonating the Italian government. The screenshot below shows that the scammers asked for the following:

• Previous or current usernames associated with Arbitrum
• The previous or existing password of the project
• Project’s email addresses 
• Previous or current phone numbers associated with Arbitrum and 
• The IP addresses used to log in to the X account

ZachXBT was also one of the targets of the crypto scammers as they illegally requested X legal portal to delete his five tweets, disguising themselves as the Italian government. However, X denied the scammers’ request.

Who is Responsible For Misusing X Legal Request Portal?

The on-chain sleuth believes that phishing scammers “Chase/HZ” is responsible for the activity. 

In February 2023, BeInCrypto reported that the US government seized around $260,000 from HZ. Notably, he was responsible for attacking crypto projects such as Nouns Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) and JRNY club.

Moreover, through Telegram’s direct message, HZ flexed about “breaking the law in Italy” to ZachXBT.

The on-chain sleuth has been actively tracking down crypto scammers and lost funds. Most recently, on Tuesday, he discovered an additional $37 million stolen during the Alphapo hack. His investigation has often helped law enforcement agencies to arrest scammers and seize stolen funds.

Got something to say about crypto scammers misusing the Italian government’s email or anything else? Write to us or join the discussion on our Telegram channel. You can also catch us on TikTok, Facebook, or X.

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