After six days of hibernation, cryptocurrency stolen from a $71 million wallet impersonation scheme is back in action.

After six days of quiet, stolen cryptocurrency money connected to a recent $71 million wallet impersonation crime are now in motion.

A wallet poisoning scheme affected an investor on May 3rd when they transmitted $71 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) to a bait wallet address.

Using comparable alphanumeric characters, the scammer generated a wallet address and made a modest transaction to the victim's account.

The victim, like the majority of investors, transferred 97% of their total funds to the wallet after validating it with a match between the first and final few characters. Still, the distinction would have been apparent in the middle characters, which are frequently obscured on platforms to improve visual appeal.

Hackers often convert stolen crypto to Ether ETH$2,991 which makes it easier to siphon via privacy protocols such as Tornado Cash — and this hacker was no different.

The 1,155 WBTC was immediately converted to roughly 23,000 ETH and sat dormant in the scammer’s wallet for six days.

On May 8, blockchain investigation firm PeckShield noticed some of the stolen funds being laundered. The scammer started breaking down the loot into multiple parts and began sending it to multiple crypto wallets in parts.

The scammer used roughly 400 crypto wallets to dilute the stolen funds and reduce traceability. Eventually, the funds in question ended up in over 150 wallets.

However, all the stolen funds can still be traced back to the unknown scammer at the time of writing.

Crypto scammers and hackers have historically been found to be most active during bull markets. Read Cointelegraph’s learners’ guide on how to safely store cryptocurrencies.

The scam only works on tokens that comply with the ERC-2612 token standard, which allows for “gas-less” transfers or transfers by a wallet that does not hold ETH.

However, to enable approval-less transactions, the user must be tricked into signing a message.

Cointelegraph’s investigation found that the scam was orchestrated by a Telegram group that featured a fake version of the Collab.Land Telegram verification system