Law enforcement agencies also deceived? US Drug Enforcement Administration falls victim to "zero transfer attack," with 50,000 USDT transferred to a scam address.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration fell victim to a recent surge in zero transfer attacks, resulting in the direct transfer of 55,000 USDT that had been seized earlier from illegal drug trafficking money flows to the scammers' wallet.

What is a Zero Transfer Attack: Cryptocurrency wallet addresses should not be judged solely by the first and last characters, warned by Changpeng Zhao CZ: Binance almost lost $20 million to scammers

"Zero Transfer Attack" - DEA Falls Victim to Fake U Addresses, U.S. Marshals Service Also Deceived

According to Forbes, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized over $500,000 in USDT from their Binance account in May suspecting it was related to drug trafficking money flow, and stored it in a Trezor wallet.

One day, a scammer well-versed in blockchain analysis noticed the DEA sent 45.36 USDT to the United States Marshals Service.

Anticipating this was a test before a larger transfer, the scammer quickly set up an address with the first five and last four characters matching the U.S. Marshals Service address and sent tokens to the DEA address.

From the DEA's perspective, the fake address may have appeared to be their usual interaction address with the U.S. Marshals Service, and most people's habit on the blockchain is to copy and paste addresses.

The scammer eventually received 55,000 USDT sent by the DEA.

Tether: Too Late to Freeze USDT

Upon discovering the anomaly, the U.S. Marshals Service promptly notified the DEA, which then contacted Tether in an attempt to freeze the address, but Tether officials stated that the USDT had already been spent.

After a joint investigation by the DEA and FBI, it was found that the USDT had been converted to ETH and transferred to a new address.

While the scammer's identity remains unknown, it was discovered that Binance had two accounts continuously receiving ETH from that address to pay for Gas fees. The FBI will start the investigation from the Binance accounts, using two registered Gmail addresses with Binance.

Zero U Address Poisoning - Profits of $400,000 from Three Months of Scams?

Forbes did not disclose the address, but transaction records show that the address currently holds nearly $40,000 in cryptocurrency, has received $425,000 since June, and transferred $300,000 to seven different wallets in the past three weeks.

Both the DEA and FBI declined to comment.