A cautionary alert has been issued by blockchain investigator ZachXBT regarding a group of scammers aiming to ensnare more victims in a fresh fraud scheme employing millions in stolen funds.

ZachXBT disclosed the outcomes of an investigation concerning Leaper Finance, a lending protocol hosted on the Blast network, via a thread on X. The analysis suggests that this group is responsible for multiple rug pulls, including those impacting users of Magnate ($6.5 million), Kokomo ($4 million), Solfire ($4.8 million), and Lendora.

In the past, they permitted the total value locked (TVL) to reach seven figures before absconding with all user funds deposited into the protocol, often resorting to falsifying KYC documents and relying on lower-tier audit firms. Their latest scams have been launched across various networks, including Base, Solana, Scroll, Optimism, Arbitrum, Ethereum, Avalanche, among others.

The group is also suspected of orchestrating scams involving Hash DAO, Glori Finance, and ZebraDAO, with estimated losses exceeding $20 million.

A rug pull occurs when developers abruptly withdraw all funds from a liquidity pool or project wallet, leaving investors with worthless assets. This is done without warning, resulting in significant financial losses for those involved.

As part of their recent fraudulent activity, the group allegedly channeled nearly $1 million laundered from previous scams into a Leaper Finance address on the Blast network to increase liquidity and attract unsuspecting victims.

Following the revelation of Leaper Finance's association with these scams, the group responded to ZachXBT with harassment and announced a token launch, invoking the name of the North Korean hacker group Lazarus. Subsequently, accounts related to Leaper Finance and Glori Finance on X were deactivated, and the projects' websites were taken offline.

According to a research report by blockchain security firm Immunefi dated February 29, over $200 million worth of cryptocurrency was lost to hacks and rug pulls in the first two months of 2024 across 32 separate incidents.