Meet one of the biggest crypto scams ever…
In August 2024, Malone Lam — a 20-year-old from Singapore — and a group of associates allegedly pulled off one of the most audacious Bitcoin thefts on record.
No hacks. No code exploits.
Just phone calls.
Their target was a Bitcoin holder in Washington, D.C. who had stacked 4,100+ BTC since 2014 — roughly $240M at the time.
Here’s how it reportedly went down:
They posed as Google support, got the victim to share his screen
Then called again pretending to be Gemini, claiming the account was compromised
The victim was told to move everything to a “secure wallet” immediately
“I did it.”
One transaction later… the entire stack was gone.
A leaked Discord voice chat later surfaced with the crew celebrating in disbelief:
“Oh my God, $243 million! We did it!”
Wild part: the group reportedly first connected through Minecraft faction servers — starting with small-time scams (in‑game items, chargebacks), then scaling up until they hit the jackpot.
Then came the flex era: Lambos, Miami mansions, $2M watches, $500K bar tabs, private jets.
But the trail caught up. Investigator ZachXBT helped surface key evidence, the FBI moved fast, and the group was raided and charged — even after trying to blend into a wider network.
Most of the stolen BTC was later confiscated.
