Introduction
When Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) came into existence, everyone was gushing about their prospects. Most of us thought, what could NFTs mean for the artists, especially those who create digitally? The results are out now. A few years after their inception, NFTs have delivered on their promises. Platforms such as OpenSea have become the playground of digital artists who want to display their talents and earn a living by using their talent. However, it is all not rosy in the NFT world. In stark contrast to this positive side, there is also a dark side to the NFT world.
Time after time, the darker side of NFT has shown itself in the form of NFT scams, which are all too common these days. Just recently, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT was hacked. The damages suffered were in excess of 200 ETH.
BAYC and Mutant Apes Tokens Lost in NFT Scams
NFTs are formed on ERC 721 and based on the Ethereum blockchain. These tokens are non-fungible, which means you cannot interchange them like cryptocurrency tokens such as Bitcoin. Non-fungibility is the reason why the illustrious BAYC and CryptoPunks tokens have such a fan following. And due to this fan following, these tokens have seen a rapid price rise.
We recently saw that someone stole two mutant apes tokens and one BAYC token in a scam. The hack resulted from a phishing attack, which led to the compromise of Boris Vagner’s account – the project community manager.
Once the hackers acquired Vagner’s account username and password, they could post fake hyperlinks on BAYC’s Discord channels. However, a Twitter user NFTherder discovered the hack. But unfortunately, it was too late.
The stolen NFTs were traced to 4 different NFT wallets.
Later, it was found that the amount hacked was north of $360K, which equates to almost 200 Ethereum coins. If you think that this hack was something new, it isn’t the case. Yuga Labs NFTs have already been hacked multiple times.
In April, an unscrupulous person was able to steal more than $2.8 million in NFTs by exploiting a Captcha bot bug. In recent times, NFTs and DeFi space have come under attack. The total losses suffered in the sector in 2021 amount to $14 billion.
Final Thoughts
NFTs have been created to reward artists. But of late, the same NFTs have become a cause of concern. Many marketplaces like OpenSea have become hackers’ paradise. The exploitation of bugs and phishing attacks have become a common occurrence in the recent past.