Targeted phishing scam nets $438K in crypto and NFTs from hacked Beeple account

Digital creator and fashionable non-fungible token (NFT) creator Mike Winkelmann, much commonly known arsenic Beeple, had his Twitter relationship hacked connected Sunday, May 22 arsenic portion of a phishing scam.

Harry Denley, a Security Analyst astatine MetaMask, alerted users that Beeple’s tweets astatine the clip containing a nexus to a raffle of a Louis Vuitton NFT collaboration were successful information a phishing scam that would drain the crypto retired of users' wallets if clicked.

The scammers were apt looking to capitalize connected a existent caller collaboration betwixt Beeple and Louis Vuitton. Earlier successful May, Beeple designed 30 NFTs for the luxury manner brand’s “Louis The Game” mobile crippled which were embedded arsenic rewards to players.

The scammer continued to station phishing links from Beeple’s Twitter relationship starring to fake Beeple collections, luring successful unsuspecting users with the committedness of a escaped mint for unsocial NFTs.

The phishing links were up connected Beeple’s Twitter for astir 5 hours and on-chain investigation of 1 of the scammers' wallets shows the archetypal phishing nexus scored them 36 Ethereum (ETH) worthy astir $73,000 astatine the time.

The 2nd nexus netted the scammers astir $365,000 worthy of ETH and NFTs from high-value collections specified arsenic the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, VeeFriends, and Otherdeeds amongst others bringing the expansive full worth stolen from the scam to astir $438,000.

On-chain information shows the scammer selling the NFTs connected OpenSea and putting their stolen ETH into a crypto mixer successful an effort to launder the gains.

Beeple aboriginal tweeted that helium had regained power of his relationship and added to punctual his followers that “anything excessively bully to beryllium existent IS A F*CKING SCAM.”

Related: Needed: A monolithic acquisition task to combat hacks and scams

Beeple has created 3 of the top 10 astir costly NFTs sold to day including 1 which sold for $69.3 million, the astir costly ever sold to a sole owner. This attraction has made him a people for hacks.

In November 2021, an admin account connected Beeple’s Discord was hacked with scammers determination besides promoting a likewise fake NFT driblet which resulted successful users losing astir 38 ETH.

Earlier this month, cybersecurity steadfast Malwarebytes released a study which highlighted a rise successful phishing attempts arsenic scammers effort to currency successful connected NFT hype. The steadfast noted the usage of fraudulent websites depicted arsenic morganatic platforms is the astir communal maneuver utilized by scammers.