The famous NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club faces ongoing phishing attacks.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has reported being attacked by phishing scammers on Saturday, resulting in a loss of 200 ETH, equivalent to $357,000 at the time of the incident.
The attackers got unauthorized access to the Discord server of the BAYC and Metaverse Otherside, which granted them access to the system, database, and network infrastructure.
After that, they effortlessly stole the account of the project’s community manager BorisVagner. The compromised account then executed the phishing scam, posting a link to a fraudulent website.
New Problems for NFT Holders
The scam worked on the gullible users and the victims lost their valuable NFTs. Data from blockchain security and data analytics company PeckShield revealed the scammers stole 1 BAYC, 2 MAYC, 5 Otherdeeds, and 1 BAKC.
Shortly after the incident, the BAYC team said that an investigation was underway, advising those affected by the cyberattack to send an email to the project’s address.
The team would give further assistance. Furthermore, the team also noted that BAYC and other related NFT collections would never send surprising rewards or presents to the community.
NFT is a non-fungible token that represents digital item ownership rights, and it is being used by some to help transform the world of art and music. Clearly, the NFT industry is dealing with an ongoing phishing effort powered by hacked internal accounts.
A Big Target
Like crypto phishing scams, these cases in the NFT sector have a pattern and even though lots of cases have raised an alert, users still fall prey to the trick.
For BAYC, it’s not an exception. The popularity of an NFT project is strongly related to the possibility of being targeted by malicious attacks.
BAYC is one of the most valuable NFT collectibles on the market so it’s entirely on the radar of hackers over the past year. It’s not its first attack. The collectible experienced a similar case in the second quarter of last year, which caused a loss of $69,000-worth NFT
In April, the project’s Instagram account was hacked with far worse consequences, with 91 NFTs worth at least $2.8 million from users.
When the Instagram account was compromised, it was used to post a fake update claiming that there was a LAND airdrop and that users had to connect their wallets to claim the airdrop.
No Great Solutions
Yuga Labs co-founder Gordon Goner said that BAYC, Apecoin (APE), and OtherSide need to switch to another social platform so as to improve their security and enhance their safety for both community and projects.
Such disappointments on Discord have increased after the recent attack. Gordon Goner lashed out at Discord after the platform’s servers crashed and 200 Ethereum worth of NFTs were stolen.
He also expressed his discontent via a tweet, saying that the popular chat application “isn’t working for Web3 communities.”
Gordon’s post quickly received controversial reactions. Some figures in the crypto community did not agree with Gordon’s claim. Crypto analyst OKHotshot said the hack was the fault of BAYC Discord users.
OKHotshot said that it was necessary to use the tool correctly before blaming the hack on it. While developer Cory.eth, founder of the NFT OpenAvatar collection, added that users “just need to use the technology better.”
The cryptocurrency market is rapidly expanding, providing numerous chances for investors.
At the same time, this market is fraught with danger. Not to mention the market’s volatility, the risk that every novice may encounter while entering this market is a hoax.
Yet, security is the primary priority for NFT initiatives, and it is critical that community members be wary of the techniques in order to better protect themselves against scammers.
As the cryptocurrency industry expands, more sophisticated frauds emerge; being aware of these scams will help you avoid losing a lot of money.
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