Fake Twitter profile
Another Bored Ape NFT owner was phished today by a fake Twitter account (bhawana.eth), the latest of many to fall victim to an NFT airdrop scam.
The Twitter account above is verified – it has the blue checkmark by the name – but scammers can simply buy a verified profile that is not longer in use, purchase followers to have a legitimate looking follower count, and fill out the bio with convincing pictures.
What is an NFT Airdrop Scam?
That’s what happened here – the hacker repurposed an old unused Twitter profile with a blue check, bought followers, then uploaded some Ape NFT pics.
Then they created a website, as anyone can do, especially with a less common domain extension like dot.art, dot.biz, or dot.io. Anyone can set up a website as long as it hasn’t been claimed yet – if it has, adding a hyphen can fix that too.
The instant transfer and ‘sale’ of the scammed holder’s BAYC and MAYC NFTs
On that website, unsuspecting victims are prompted to ‘connect their wallet’, and if they do, their NFTs and any crypto funds are instantly drained and stolen.
Several crypto traders on Twitter noticed the scam had taken place as NFT and crypto transactions on the Ethereum blockchain are logged on Etherscan.
The scammed investor lost a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT worth 102 ETH ($316,000), a Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT worth 23.4 ETH ($72,500) and other NFTs, totalling over half a million dollars in losses.
Trader @zachxbt posted the unfortunate news. An ‘on-chain sleuth’ and ‘2D detective’ he regularly tweets warnings about NFT airdrop scams, crypto airdrop scams, suspicious projects that might end up as ‘rugpulls’, and other types of crypto scams.
They keep making new sites + accounts pic.twitter.com/YoQiUsB4Aj
— zachxbt (@zachxbt) March 24, 2022
How to Avoid NFT Airdrop Scams
To avoid an NFT airdrop scam always double and triple check the site you are connecting your Metamask wallet or any other
