Vietnam, crypto thief sent to prison for 10 years

It had become a habit for Nham Hoang Khang, a hacker, to attack T-rex, a Vietnamese Exchange. On January 6, the life of the 35-year-old hacker changed. He fell into the hands of justice for embezzlement. The court also demanded him to hand over all stolen cryptocurrencies down to the smallest penny.

Crypto thieves are not spoiled in Vietnam

Although cryptocurrencies are not legally recognized in Vietnam, theft is still a crime, no matter what is stolen. At least that’s what the court in Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese city, said.

After arresting the thief who hacked a Vietnamese Exchange (T-Rex), the authorities did not let this crime go unpunished. Nham Hoang Khang, the perpetrator of the cyberattack, will serve 10 years in prison. The court also ordered him to pay back all the money stolen from the crypto trading platform.

According to the English edition of the daily VN Express, Nham Hoang Khang was sentenced on Friday, January 6, by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court. He is accused of embezzling cryptocurrencies from the T-Rex Exchange, estimated to be worth 300 million dong, or $13,000.

The platform had been a victim of the hacker for a long time!

The People’s Court says it has started investigations into the convict since last year. It has finally discovered solid evidence. According to his indictment, Nham Hoang Khang used his knowledge of hacking to discover a security flaw in the Exchange. He then began exploiting it in 2020, when the Exchange was just two years old.

After discovering the Exchange’s security flaws, the hacker created several accounts via his phone in October 2020. A month later, he managed to take control of an Exchange employee’s account where about 30,000 USDT was stored. This account was urgently locked by the team after discovering an unusual movement.

When the thief realized that he no longer had access to this account, he used his technology skills to achieve his goal. He began by retrieving information on 29,000 T-Rex customers to create a large number of fraudulent orders. Khang then continued his attacks with threats. He demanded that the Exchange owner pay $20,000 not to reveal to users that T-Rex had been hacked.

Unfortunately, Ngo Chau, the founder of the Exchange, gave in to the threats and asked his employees to send the hacker 300 million dong. It was then that the team, using this transaction as a trap, “caught” the hacker and then filed a complaint with the authorities in 2021.

This case ends well on the side, something rather rare considering the growth in the number of hacks in 2022. Never forget to protect your cryptos, that’s what hard wallets are for.