On Sunday, the Twitter account of artist Beeple, who has collaborated on several non-fungible token (NFT) projects, was hacked. Phishing links were released, resulting in over $400,000 in stolen funds.
Beeple Twitter account hacked
The artist Beeple had his Twitter account hacked on Sunday. The hackers twice posted phishing links featuring non-fungible token projects (NFTs) and made over $400,000 in profit at the victims’ expense.
Beeple is indeed known for its digital works, so this attack may have seemed credible. The first link featured an alleged collaboration with Louis Vuitton and allowed the theft of 36 ETH. The ruse was not random, as it was indeed this artist who designed some of the NFTs in the French brand’s mobile game.
But the hackers didn’t stop there and used Beeple’s Twitter profile again to post another phishing link. Developer Harry Denley tweeted screenshots of this second stunt to warn the community:
Bad actors continue to have access to Beeples Twitter account and they have now tweeted another phishing domain.
This one just prompts the user to send ETH to an EOA (0xcad7fc974F61A08ADEF110D1BA446fa5b5Bb27).
Infra: 44.227.238.106 pic.twitter.com/HzTga1OvNK
– harry.eth (whg.eth) (@sniko_) May 22, 2022
The fraudulent publication in question actually had more victims and these two operations combined raised a total of 225 ETH which were then sent to the Tornado Cash mixer.
When it’s too good to be true
After regaining control of his account, Beeple confirmed the hack. He also quoted the adage that if something is too good to be true, it’s probably a scam:
ugh we’ll that was fun way to wake up.
Twitter was hacked but we have control now. Huge thanks to @garyvee ‘a team for quick help!!!!
– beeple (@beeple) May 22, 2022
Unlike the recent phishing attack on CoinGecko, this campaign was truly deceptive and actually ensnared many people.
It is difficult to establish precise rules to counter this type of scam, but we nevertheless warn that in the framework of a real project, the actors concerned will prepare the ground and advance with marketing. If the opposite were to happen, it is certainly preferable to miss an opportunity, rather than put your wallet at risk. Malicious people do play on emotions and a sense of urgency
