Payment of $32,000 in Bitcoin was sent to an address used by Electrum malware

Electrum-based malware scam was once again highlighted by Whale Alert tracking service by drawing attention to a payment made to an address used by Electrum malware. According to the tweet, the payment involved 2.042 BTC worth about $32,876 at that time. 

2.042 Bitcoin was sent to the malware scam address which has been active since May 2019 according to Blockchain.com. The transaction which occurred today on 13 November at 11:06 UTC included a fee of approximately 0.001 Bitcoin, or $27. 

The receiving address mentioned below is said to be used in the Electrum malware scam: 

bc1qjg4ax2h7gff0wszjq0jzmv2gwzgtfluzrelf59. So far this address has reportedly made over $1 million since its inception in May 2019.

Malware infects computers and can cause enormous amounts of damage. The most common form of malware will change any payment address that users try to copy and paste into an address owned by its creator. Other forms of malware include hidden miners, spyware, and ransomware.

Last month, an investigation found that cybercrime gangs have stolen over to $22 million from users who use the Electrum Bitcoin wallets via a fake app update scam. The criminals later transferred the stolen funds to multiple Bitcoin accounts which now contain 1,980 bitcoin. 

Much of these funds were stolen in one single incident in August, after an Electrum BTC wallet user posted on Github about losing 1,400 bitcoin after falling for the fake update. 

It turned out that these criminals have been using a particular technique repeatedly since December 2018 right until their last known attack which occurred in September 2020.