He ran through quiet East London streets for several hundred feet, shouting at the thief as their footsteps echoed on the pavement. Despite being a competitive racket sports player, he couldn’t catch him. He then returned to the bar and asked staff to contact the police, unaware of how quickly his financial accounts would be targeted.
By 1:53 a.m., cryptocurrency was being converted and transferred from his MetaMask wallet. His Phantom and Bybit accounts were also accessed. By 3:22 a.m., six unauthorized card transactions had been completed, including more than $2,000 in purchases at convenience-store chain Costcutter, according to Ahmad.
The thieves also used his Uber account to book a ride and accessed his eToro trading account, where they opened leveraged cryptocurrency positions representing nearly $44,000 in trading exposure. Those positions generated additional losses and costs, rather than a $44,000 withdrawal.
Ahmad estimates his losses at roughly $14,000, including about $9,500 in cryptocurrency, nearly $3,000 in unauthorized card charges and more than $800 in eToro trading losses and costs.
His larger bank balances and other cryptocurrency holdings remained intact after he managed to freeze cards and regain control of key accounts.
“My life savings are also on that phone in bank accounts, and they were not able to withdraw those,” he said.
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