Bitcoins Reserve, an Australia-based cryptocurrency investment firm, was relieved of 100 Bitcoins – or more than $62,000 as of Tuesday – after co-founder Sam Lee responded to a phishing email targeting bidders interested in the auction of 30,000 Bitcoins confiscated in the Silk Road takedown.
The auction took place last week, but in mid-June, the U.S. Marshals Service inadvertently included all interested bidders in an email, which soon leaked publicly, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Those bidders then began receiving emails from an alleged media person asking for responses to some questions, according to the report. Respondents would receive what appeared to be a list of inquiries in a Google Doc.
Lee clicked on the phony Google Doc, compromising his email account, and subsequently enabling attackers to schedule the Bitcoin transfer largely through social engineering.
