Crypto scammers have found a creative way to target fellow fraudsters, using a sophisticated multi-signature wallet setup to deceive would-be thieves into losing small amounts of cryptocurrency.

A new scam, primarily circulating on YouTube, has been drawing attention for its clever approach to tricking would-be crypto criminals, according to a recent security update from Kaspersky. The scam lures potential thieves by offering access to a wallet, only for them to unknowingly become victims of their own greed.

In one example, Kaspersky described a comment from a would-be thief asking, “I have USDT stored in my wallet, and I have the seed phrase. How do I transfer my funds to another wallet?” This wasn’t a rookie asking for help, but a well-crafted trap. The wallet contained over $8,000 worth of stablecoins on the Tron blockchain, and the seed phrase was part of the bait.

The wallet in question was set up as a multi-signature wallet, which requires multiple parties to approve any outgoing transactions. When scammers tried to withdraw the funds by sending Tron’s TRX tokens to the wallet, the tokens mysteriously disappeared into a different wallet controlled by the scammer.

The trick here is that the multi-signature setup prevented the would-be thieves from accessing the funds directly. Instead, any funds sent to the wallet were diverted to the scammer’s personal wallet. Kaspersky explained that “scammers are impersonating novice users who unknowingly share their wallet access, drawing in other thieves who ultimately become victims.”

This scam isn’t isolated, as similar baited comments can be found across various platforms, all offering the same seed phrases in attempts to lure thieves into the trap. Kaspersky noted that while the gas fees for blockchain transactions are typically low, under $10, the scam appears to target smaller, opportunistic thefts rather than aiming for larger sums.

In the world of crypto crime, it seems there’s always an opportunity to exploit, and now, even scammers are getting scammed by their own tactics.