Attentive phishers noticed when Andreessen Horowitz partner Peter Lauten changed his Twitter username from @peter_lauten to @lauten, and snapped up the previous username. They then began contacting various targets in the cryptocurrency world, asking to set up meetings to arrange appearances on the venture capital firm’s crypto podcast.The scammers followed a familiar playbook in which they asked their targets to download video call software called “Vortax”, which was actually wallet draining malware. However, these scammers had a leg up on some others who have been running that scheme: the Andreessen Horowitz website still listed Lauten’s old username on their website, giving even skeptical victims some reassurance that the account was legitimate.According to crypto sleuth zachxbt, who first reported on this incident, one victim lost $245,000 when his wallets were drained by the malware.

Total loss estimated at $245,000.