On May 22, the Twitter account of well-known digital artist Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, was hacked. Metamask security analyst Harry Denley announced this on Twitter.
Denley warned users in his tweet that Beeple’s tweets, which contained a link to a raffle for a Louis Vuitton NFT partnership, were part of a phishing attack. Denley also stated that clicking the link would drain cryptocurrency from users’ wallets.
The scammer planned this attack in order to profit from Beeple’s recent collaboration with the fashion giant. Beeple created 30 NFTs for Louis Vuitton’s Louis the Game mobile game as part of this collaboration. The NFTs were incorporated into the game as player rewards.
From Beeple’s account, the scammer continued to post phishing links. The links directed unwitting users to fake Beeple collections. The collections specifically promised a free mint for unique NFTs.
Denley continued to tweet:
If we assume everything is secure, at time of this tweet the bad actors managed to scam:
Scam #1
36ETH (~$72k)
0xf305 is yet to withdraw
Scam #2
62.35ETH (~$125k)
37.59WETH (~$75k)
45 NFTs (est ~$166k)
Total = $438k (active for ~5hours)
To launder the proceeds, the scammer used a cryptocurrency mixer
The scammer sold the obtained NFTs on OpenSea. The scammer used a cryptocurrency mixer to launder the proceeds. Beeple was eventually able to regain control of his account. He did, however, warn users to be cautious, saying that anything that appears too good to be true is a scam.
This comes as phishing attacks continue to plague the cryptocurrency and NFT industries. In the last month, MetaMask warned web3 enthusiasts using Apple devices to be wary of a phishing attack. This warning was issued after an Apple user lost over $650,000 in NFTs and ApeCoin (APE). Apple devices, according to MetaMask, have a default security flaw that allows malicious actors to view seed phrase stored on Apple’s iCloud storage service.
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