The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BYAC) is perhaps the most popular non-fungible token (NFT) collection in the world right now. Celebrities regularly bought Bored Ape NFTs and the prices of the plates went completely through the roof in 2021. Now it’s less with the prices of Bored Apes and even less with a specific collector, who lost his entire collection through a hack.
14 Bored Ape NFTs gone
Hackers have managed to steal a collection of 14 Bored Apes from a clumsy user. In this case, the hacker also managed to quickly liquidate the NFTs, raising 850 ethereum (ETH). An amount worth just over $1 million.
🚨 Analysis of how a scammer stole 14 BAYCs worth over 852 ETH ($1.07 million) today through a month-long social engineering scam.
Here’s how it happened 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/JJB2xSJyBQ
— Serpent (@Serpent) December 17, 2022
The hacker in question eventually took months to obtain the NFTs. He posed as a casting director at a Los Angeles-based studio. It was supposedly intended to use the victim’s NFTs in the studio for a hefty fee.
Although the studio really exists, the hacker obviously didn’t work there. The hacker used a fake domain name to arrange everything, spent hours on the phone with the owner of the NFTs, and made fake pitches for collaborations. The hack itself can be called a work of art in itself. After the transfer, things went quickly and the victim’s NFTs were sold quickly.
What can we learn from this?
It is important to always keep your assets under your own management and never just transfer them to someone who promises you a golden return. In this case, the NFTs were not transferred ‘just like that’, but after months of communication.
Often it’s pretty simple things you can do to protect yourself. The victim in question could have checked everything by sending an e-mail to the official e-mail address of the studio.
Do you really not know? Then approach someone you trust in this area or even email Crypto Insiders to ask if you are dealing with a legitimate company.