2 million dollars lost due to a fake link provided by ChatGPT

A cryptocurrency investor lost over $2.1 million due to a security vulnerability encountered while using an AI service. This incident, highlighted by The Crypto Times, once again demonstrates the critical importance of strictly following cybersecurity rules when using modern technologies and neural networks. This is reported by Ixbt.com reports .

According to The Crypto Times, citing data from blockchain researcher VAL, the emergency incident involving a significant financial loss occurred on June 12, 2026. The victim, known as Alex on the X (formerly Twitter) social network, sent a query to ChatGPT in Russian asking where to exchange sFLR tokens of the Flare ecosystem for WFLR tokens.

Among the answers provided by the neural network was a link leading to a fake copy of the popular Sceptre crypto service that looked identical to the original. The victim connected their crypto wallet to this resource and signed an 'unlimited approve' contract, which grants the smart contract the right to manage tokens without confirming each individual transaction.

Movement of stolen funds and attempts to cover tracks

A few seconds later, the criminals used the transferFrom function to withdraw approximately 1.9 million FXRP tokens from the user's account. Based on the market value at the time, the stolen assets amounted to approximately $2.1 million or nearly 180 million rubles. According to estimates, the volume of stolen tokens equaled 1.3 percent of the total FXRP in circulation.

For reference, the FXRP token is a special asset created for use in the Flare DeFi ecosystem based on XRP. According to preliminary investigations conducted by blockchain researcher VAL, a total of over $2.2 million has been stolen through the infrastructure associated with this attack.

The expert was able to track the subsequent movement of a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency. According to him, the illegally obtained funds were exchanged for DAI and Ethereum tokens through platforms like OpenOcean, and then distributed to several different wallets. To hide their tracks, the criminals directed a portion of the stolen funds, specifically 50 ETH, to the Tornado Cash service, which significantly complicated the tracking of subsequent transactions.

Victim's appeal and subsequent conclusions

After the incident, the victim disclosed information about the transactions and wallet addresses in the hope of finding the stolen funds. However, other scammers took advantage of this and began messaging them, promising to return the cryptocurrency for a fee. Alex urged other users never to trust such suspicious offers.

After the event, researcher VAL sent similar queries to ChatGPT in several languages, but was unable to retrieve the exact same fake link again. It remains unclear how the fraudulent resource ended up in the neural network's responses.