NFT trading is booming online: celebrities, crypto-millionaires and other new rich are bustling about in the OpenSea digital marketplace in particular, trading comic-book-like images of bored monkeys or token-protected cyberpunks non-fungible (NFT). . More recently, Justin Bieber acquired Ape #3001 for the hefty price tag of 500 ETH ($1.3 million). Now hackers have used a fraudulent trick to trick a victim into giving them control of their digital art. The trade value of captured NFTs is $2.7 million, according to The Block.
On Monday, Twitter user registered as Larry Lawliet (@iloveponzi) publicly asked for help after losing all of his digital art. The attackers had tricked him into accepting a fake transaction, allowing them to transfer the NFTs from their victim’s wallet to their own. This type of scam seems to be taking hold in the crypto world – especially now that NFTs can be worth millions.
I lost all my monkeys and mutants just now, someone bought it??? please touch me! pic.twitter.com/AN5IMt2ntu
— larrylawliet.eth (@iloveponzi) January 31, 2022
According to blockchain records, the hacker stole seven NFTs: one from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, five from the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and a Doodle. Four more Doodle NFTs were stolen from other victims. The hacker sold the NFTs for just under $700,000, with the Bored Ape alone fetching 100 ETH ($275,000). Lawliet believes the scammer sold the NFTs for way below their value, according to him they should have fetched around 1,000 ETH ($2.7 million). “He will have resold them as soon as possible so as not to be blocked from OpenSea”, speculates the victim. In fact, the affected NFTs are now listed as “frozen” on OpenSea.
NFT theft is nothing new these days. Last year, hackers took over multiple Nifty Gateway marketplace accounts and stole thousands of dollars worth of digital art. Here too, paintings from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection were particularly sought after due to their high selling price. Successful attacks show that marketplaces and NFT ecosystems still have serious vulnerabilities created by the interaction between centralized systems and decentralized assets and lack of user vigilance.
The music scene is also getting angry because scammers are selling music as NFTs without permission. The popular market for musical NFT is HitPiece, which announces that each song is protected and unique and belongs only to the members. Customers would also have access to the artists and could share their experiences with them.
However, artists are now complaining that their copyrighted songs appear as NFTs on HitPiece without being asked. “HitPiece is selling NFTs from our band and many others without their permission,” rock band Eve 6 tweeted. Affected musicians are already tweeting cease and desist letters to stop HitPiece, according to Mashable. Basically, it’s not at all clear what HitPiece is selling, they are definitely not original master recordings. Presumably, coins are only unique within the context of the HitPiece platform and represent a kind of artificial rarity in an equally artificial ecosystem.
— HitPiece – NFT Music (@joinhitpiece) February 2, 2022
HitPiece announced on Twitter that each artist would receive a financial share in the sale of their digitized music. “As with all beta products, we continue to listen to user feedback and are committed to evolving the product to meet the needs of artists, labels and fans.”