- On Sunday, Beeple’s Twitter account was hacked for almost five hours.
- Phishing Web links were posted by the attackers, targeting unsuspecting people.
- The first link snatched $73K, while the second scooped about $365K.
Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, a digital artist and popular non-fungible token (NFT) developer, got his Twitter handle hacked on Sunday, May 22 as part of a phishing attack.
Users were warned by Harry Denley, a Security Analyst at MetaMask, that Beeple’s tweets at the moment, that featured a link to a raffle for a Louis Vuitton NFT collab, had been in ways phishing scams which would steal cryptocurrency from users’ wallets if they clicked.
⚠️ Beeple's Twitter account has been compromised (ATO) to post a phishing website to steal funds.
0x7b69c4f2ACF77300025E49DbDbB65B068b2Fda7D
0xF305F6073CFa24f05FF15CA5b387DD91f871b983 pic.twitter.com/0MPNwOPlEu— harry.eth 🦊💙 (whg.eth) (@sniko_) May 22, 2022
The fraudsters were most likely aiming to capitalize from a legitimate recent collaboration involving Beeple and Louis Vuitton. Beeple developed 30 NFTs for the premium fashion brand’s “Louis The Game” mobile game in May, which were used as player incentives.
The attacker planned to exploit Beeple’s Twitter account to tweet phishing links to faux Beeple collections, tempting innocent viewers in with the offer of a free mint for unique NFTs.
Bad actors continue 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 (0xcad7fc974F61A08ADEF110D1BA446fa5b5B5Bb27).
Infra: 44.227.238.106 pic.twitter.com/HzTga1OvNK
— harry.eth 🦊💙 (whg.eth) (@sniko_) May 22, 2022
The scamming links were live on Beeple’s Twitter for about five hours, and an on-chain investigation from one of the fraudsters’ wallets showed that the first phishing link netted them 36 Ethereum (ETH), which was valued about $73,000 at the moment.
The hackers got roughly $365,000 in ETH and NFTs from high-value collections including the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, VeeFriends, and Otherdeeds, among others, making the total amount stolen from the fraud to around $438,000.
According to on-chain data, the fraudster sold the NFTs on OpenSea and then transferred their looted ETH into a crypto mixer to try to disguise their profits.
Later, Beeple posted on Twitter that he had got control of his account.
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
Beeple is accountable for three of the top ten most precious NFTs ever sold, one of which managed to sell for $69.3 million, the highest price ever paid by a single owner.
Due to his reputation, he has been a target for hackers.
An admin account on Beeple’s Discord was compromised in November 2021, with fraudsters sending a similar fraudulent NFT drop, resulting in users losing about 38 ETH.
Hackers are trying to cash in with the NFT boom, according to research released recently by cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes. Scammers’ most popular approach, according to the firm, is to create fake websites which pretend to be genuine platforms.
Users must be alert.
Users must be cautious when engaging in online activities, especially when cryptocurrencies are involved. Beeple’s hack serves as a warning nobody is immune to such scams. Users should closely double-check links prior to clicking them, and never enter their secret keys into any websites.
Also read: Biggest Crypto Heist: Hacker Moves Stolen Crypto to Tornado Cash.
