Six Figures Vanished in One Click: The DeFi Ad-Scam Spectacle

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In the theatre of finance, a single reckless click can cut a fortune down to a sigh. Here, a Google ad masquerading as Uniswap becomes a mischievous sprite, and a fortune exits stage left with theatrical speed.

A DeFi trader, known on X as @ika_xbt, discovered that a mid-six-figure portfolio could evaporate in a transaction’s blink. One click, and the ledger-all that was once glimmering-vanished.

The drain led to a figure known as Angelferno. A counterfeit Uniswap advert appeared in Google’s sunlit corridors. The trader clicked, signed, and, in moments, the assets dissolved as if the cat had eaten the canary and left a bill for the teeth.

“Six figures. Gone. A drain link by the infamous Angelferno,” he lamented on X. Two Ledger hardware wallets. Two years of discipline. Wiped away in the twinkling of an eye.

The portfolio had weathered the bear and survived several market collapses, yet it did not survive a malicious Google ad.

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Google Took the Money Too, Just Not the Way You Think

On-chain analyst ZachXBT flagged the affair on X, demanding accountability at the highest echelons. Google executives should face criminal liability, he argued, for the scale of theft these ads have made possible-a multi-nine-figure sum, not a mere rounding error.

The mechanics are blunt and merciless. Fraudsters purchase Google Ad slots for searches like “Uniswap” or “DeFi swap.” Their counterfeit site climbs above the genuine one. The user connects their wallet. A drain script empties it-presto, capitalism’s magic trick, with fewer tricks and more heartbreak.

DeFiLlama developer 0xngmi called the mischief out on X, noting years spent crafting tools to prevent precisely this loss. Five different products, and still the breach remains. He urged users toward search.defillama.com as a safer conduit to legitimate DeFi links than the perilous glare of Google search results.

“I’ve spent years trying to stop these losses,” 0xngmi wrote. The scale of the problem has outpaced the fixes.

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The Slow Bleed Before the Final Drain

The loss wasn’t merely bad luck, but a genealogy of decisions. In a detailed post on X, @ika_xbt described a chain of choices that left him exposed. The bear market did not break him outright; a Polymarket farming strategy did. It kept him active on-chain, and-alas-kept him clicking.

“Getting drained isn’t bad luck. It’s the final consequence of a long chain of bad decisions,” he wrote. The framing matters, not to absolve victims, but to illustrate how overactivity invited the thief to tea. Chasing an airdrop on Polymarket drew the wallet back into use at exactly the wrong moment.

The exchange was stark. If he had converted to BTC at the cycle’s top and stepped away, retirement from active speculation might have been within reach. Instead, farming continued. The bag grew; so did the attack surface.

The loss was not purely financial. It signified years of foregone career paths and opportunity costs that cannot be measured in dollars alone.

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One Wallet, One Transaction, No Recourse

What makes this tale notable is not the amount alone, but the method. A Google-served advertisement delivered a drain script that cleared a carefully maintained, hardware-wallet‑protected portfolio in a single transaction.

ZachXBT’s estimate places aggregate losses from this scam well into nine figures, and the tally continues to climb.

The counsel from 0xngmi on X is unambiguous: stop using Google to search for DeFi protocols. Use search.defillama.com instead. Bookmark real URLs directly. Never trust a sponsored result above a DeFi interface.

As for @ika_xbt, the path forward is offline for now. Find a job. Build stability first. Then, and only then, put capital at risk again.

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2026-02-20 18:44