FBI Grabs $260K in Crypto from Hacker After Web Sleuth's Detective Work

I can't believe the feds actually did something useful for once. Some guy in Maine named Chase Senecal just got his crypto stash confiscated - over $260,000 worth of digital assets seized by the FBI. Talk about having a bad day!

This Senecal character, living his comfortable life in Brunswick, had his little treasure trove raided last October - 86.5678 ETH (worth $116,433), a Bored Ape NFT valued at $95,495, and a Doodle NFT worth $9,361. They even took his fancy $41,000 Audemars Piguet watch! Damn, that's gotta sting.

The best part? This takedown happened because of some anonymous internet detective called ZachXBT. While the FBI was probably busy watching cat videos, this crypto vigilante was doing actual investigative work, tracking transactions across blockchains and connecting dots like a digital Sherlock Holmes.

According to what I've pieced together, our boy Chase (aka "Horror" or "HZ" online) bought access to Twitter's admin panel from some SIM swapper named Cam. Classic criminal partnership. Then he used that access to hijack Twitter accounts and scam unsuspecting NFT holders. The stolen funds financed that fancy watch, which ironically became the breadcrumb trail leading to his downfall.

The scale of this operation is pretty wild - apparently Senecal was part of a crew that infiltrated over 600 Discord servers and 12 Twitter accounts. We're talking multi-million dollar phishing scams here. Projects like JRNY Club and that animator DeeKay Kwon got hit.

What's frustrating is that the FBI hasn't even officially acknowledged ZachXBT's work. Typical government behavior - some keyboard warrior does all the heavy lifting, and they swoop in at the last minute to take credit. At least ZachXBT called them out on Twitter.

Honestly, I'm conflicted. On one hand, scammers deserve what's coming to them. But seeing the government seize crypto assets makes me nervous. Today it's a hacker's ill-gotten gains, tomorrow it could be anyone they decide to target. The regulators are getting too comfortable in this space for my liking.

ETH2.87%
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