It is quite common to hear about hackers tricking people into depositing funds into their accounts when they are out to buy something. However, the hacker returning a substantial part of the stolen funds for no apparent reason is yet unheard of. This is what happened with CoinDash, who received the return of $3 million worth of stolen ether from the hacker.
CoinDash is a hybrid between a social network as well as a trading platform for cryptocurrencies. Their ICO was much anticipated due to their slightly different service, but with this latest news, the company can smile again.
CoinDash launched their ICO in early July, asking investors to deposit ether, into a company account in return for their share of CoinDash tokens. The investors did as they were asked, depositing some $7 million worth of ether in the account mentioned within hours. However, CoinDash soon realized that something was amiss.
A hacker had hacked the company website and changed the wallet address published on the site to one of his own wallets. So in truth, the funds submitted by investors during the time that the "fake" address was live, were transferred to the hacker’s account rather than the company. CoinDash was left wanting in the mix. It stood on its word and gave all investors their share of CoinDash tokens, taking the fall and suffering the loss.
A hacker with a conscience?
Meanwhile, the price of ether rose between mid-July and September, which made that stolen $7 million worth of ether into $10 million worth of ether, much to CoinDash’s dismay. On watching the hacker’s account, they could see that he withdrew $130,000 worth of ether. However, a couple of months after the hacker successfully stole the money, he returned $3 million worth of ether.
CoinDash’s CEO, Alon Muroch, revealed how he learned of the hacker’s goodwill gesture. He said he had just got off a plane from Kiev when he received a notification that there was some activity in the hacker’s address. However, Muroch said he would never have expected to learn that the address had transferred funds back to CoinDash.
Muroch went on to say that he was as befuddled by the discovery as anyone else. He said that CoinDash has not heard from the hacker himself, or any of his associates, so there’s still no news as to the reason behind the hacker doing what he did. Muroch appreciated the humor side of the news, jokingly saying, “A hacker steals a lot of money and out of the blue returns some of it. It’s truly incredible, this industry.”
As for CoinDash, they are certainly grateful to receive a substantial part of the stolen funds. They don’t know the reason behind it, but that’s not a big concern. The $3 million worth of ether that was returned by the hacker will be used to further develop their platform.