Popular digital artist Beeple had his Twitter account hacked as part of an organized phishing scam that has duped people out of crypto and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) worth over $436,000.
Beeple’s Twitter Account Hacked in Phishing Scam
On May 22nd, the verified Twitter account of Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, was hacked in a Phishing Scam.
After gaining access to Beeple’s account, the attackers posted a link promising a “raffle” for Beeple’s Louis Vuitton collaboration. News of the hack spread from harry.eth, who shared:
Beeple’s Twitter account has been compromised (ATO) to post a phishing website to steal funds.
0x7b69c4f2ACF77300025E49DbDbB65B068b2Fda7D
0xF305F6073CFa24f05FF15CA5b387DD91f871b983 pic.twitter.com/0MPNwOPlEu— harry.eth (whg.eth) (@sniko_) May 22, 2022
Unsuspecting victims who clicked the link had their crypto wallets drained of Ethereum and NFTs. However, Beeple was not the only target of the Phishing Scam.
Other Accounts Hacked in $438k Phishing Scam
The link was also shared on the Twitter account of Harry Denley, a security expert at cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask.
The first wallet address showed that victims of the ploy had lost 36 ETH from the attack, While on-chain data showed a second link through which the scammer had amassed stolen ETH and NFTs worth around $365,000.
Stolen NFTs included pieces from ‘Mutant Ape Yacht Club’, ‘VeeFriends’, and ‘Otherdeeds’. In total, the scammer made away with more than $438,000 in NFTs and ETH.
The bad actor proceeded to sell the ill-gotten NFTs on OpenSea, and funneled the stolen ETH into a crypto mixer in an attempt to launder the gains.
On the Flipside
- Earlier in May, Beeple and Louis Vuitton collaborated to design 30 NFTs for the ‘Louis: The Game‘ mobile game, which were embedded as rewards for players.
To learn more about ‘Louis: The Game’, check out
Why You Should Care
Crypto holders have been warned to avoid freebies that seem too good to be true. More often than not, they turn out to be scams.