The Twitter account of Mike Winkleman, a popular NFT creator, was hacked. Winkleman, also known by the alias “Beeple,” compromised his Twitter account on Sunday.
The attack is part of a phishing scam involving a fake raffle with a famous fashion brand, Louis Vuitton. A link was posted to the hacked account, which is set up to wipe users’ crypto wallets once clicked.
A crypto security analyst at MetaMask, Harry Denley, was the first to alert users of the fake raffle link on Beeple’s account. According to Denley, Beeple’s tweet links to a fake Louis Vuitton NFT partnership.
How it Happened
The recently attempted phishing is a ploy by the scammers to take advantage of the recent collaboration between Beeple and the fashion brand. In the early days of May, Beeple designed more than 20 NFT collections for the luxury fashion brand dubbed “Louis The Game.”
“Louis The Game” is a mobile game with NFT rewards for players.
As a result, the attacker posts phishing links from the account to lure unsuspecting followers. Beeple’s Twitter followers were promised a free NFT mint from Louis Vuitton. Unfortunately, the phishing scam has netted huge gains in crypto and NFT.
However, the links have been on the hacked account for about five hours. The on-chain assessment of one of the attacker’s wallets shows about 36 ETH has been raked from the scam.
The stolen assets are from high-value NFT collections. The combined total of the stolen assets is estimated to be $438,000.
Meanwhile, the same on-chain tracks the scammer selling the NFT collections. The scammers moved the stolen crypto tokens to a crypto mixer to hide the gains.
Winkleman later tweeted about reclaiming his Twitter handle with a reminder that any high-yield gains are a scam.
Beeple’s NFT Creations
The popular digital art creator has created three of the most costly NFTs in the top 10. Most of the expensive collections have been sold. Moreover, the NFT market platform sold one collection at $69.3 million, the most expensive.
Winkleman’s expertise has made him a prime target for hackers.
Last November, the Discord account of Beeple was hacked through an admin account. The attacker’s post of fake NFT draws a link with users losing up to 38 ETH. Similarly, many industry observers believe Beeple’s talent has made him a target.
It is worth noting that the NFT space has been a target for scammers in recent months. Due to the rising attention the industry has gained, this is not surprising.
The largest crypto marketplace, OpenSea, has suffered the biggest phishing attack in the industry.
Early in May, a cybersecurity company, Malwarebytes, released a study on the rising scam attempts. Scammers are turning their attention to the NFT space due to the hype it enjoys. More importantly, they are seeking to cash in on the NFT buzz.
According to the firm, scammers used questionable websites disguised as legitimate to hack people’s accounts.
