Soufiance Oulahya has been charged by US prosecutors and is currently in custody in Morocco. By using a sham OpenSea marketplace in the year 2021, he was able to steal non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies worth a total of $450,000 from an individual who lived in Manhattan.
According to the release from the office of the United States Attorney Southern District of New York, the defendant got the seed phrase of the victim by spoofing. After this, he used it to steal the entire collection of their digital art.
In regard to the specifics of the investigation, the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation collaborated to develop an indictment that states Soufiance utilized a paid advertisement on a well-known search engine in order to entice the victim to visit the spoofed Opensea website.
Oulahyane had an email ID under his control which received a seed phrase on the spoofed website. He immediately got access to the wallet of the victim and he transferred the NFTs and cryptocurrencies to his wallet. The prosecutors have not aired out the name of the victim or the search engine platform where Soufiance put the advertisement.