Another day, another cryptocurrency scam. However, this time the targets were the $5 Billion-valued Bored Ape Yacht Club and the holders of its NFT Apes.
Monday’s announcement by the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s official Twitter account that their Instagram account had been hacked was made by the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
The BAYC account tweeted, “There is no mint happening today.” It appears that the BAYC Instagram account was hacked. Don’t mint anything, click links or link your wallet with anything.
The warning came too late, however. The hacker of the BAYC Instagram quickly took advantage of the opportunity. The BAYC Instagram shared a link that directed Bored Ape Investors to a link that allowed them to connect their crypto wallet and receive a special freebie for BAYC Holders only.
In reality, that link sucked their ape-NFT-holding-wallets dry. According to Molly White, approximately 44 people fell for this scam. This resulted in the theft of 133 NFTs from their owners.
@zachxbt, a blockchain investigator, looked into the wallet address of the wall hacker and discovered that the high-valued NFTs had been stolen from 4 Bored Apes and 7 Mutant Apes. Based on past aftermarket sales, these stolen NFTs were valued at around $3 million.
The thief may also be selling the non-fungible tokens he stole on the NFT Aftermarket. Molly White states that 23 of the stolen NFTs were sold to date for an estimated $2.4 million.
It is unclear how the BAYC Instagram account got hacked. In a statement to Vice, Yuga Labs stated the owner of BAYC claimed that two-factor authentication had been enabled on the Instagram account. This security measure should have made it extremely difficult for anyone to access the account.
