On Monday, unknown hackers breached the official Instagram account of Bored Ape Yacht Club to steal popular NFTs from their followers.
The scam was successfully closed with the hackers taking over 133 NFTs worth around $2.4 million. Realizing this, BAYC soon took over the account and started investigating the incident. It’s unknown how hackers were able to take control of their Instagram accounts.
NFT Scam of Worth $2.4 Million
NFTs, the digital images that are being hyped lately in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space are now some of the highly targeted things in cyberattacks. Earlier this year, we’ve seen over a dozen users losing access to their NFTs in OpenSea, worth $1.4 million.
And now, followers of Bored Ape Yacht Club are phished to steal their valuable NFTs! As announced by BAYC’s creator Yuga Labs, unknown hackers took control of their official BAYC Instagram account and posted a fake airdrop.
This morning, the official BAYC Instagram account was hacked. The hacker posted a fraudulent link to a copycat of the BAYC website with a fake Airdrop, where users were prompted to sign a ‘safeTransferFrom’ transaction. This transferred their assets to the scammer's wallet.
— Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) April 25, 2022
They directed users to a fake BAYC website (phishing site) and asked them to connect their MetaMask wallet to receive free tokens. And when they did, hackers swept all of their NFTs available in the connected wallets.
It’s estimated that the total value of NFTs stolen could be around $2.4 million. Out of which, four Bored Apes NFTs are said to be worth over $1.4 million, with the Bored Ape 6623 alone weighing at $354,500 (133 ETH) at the time of writing this.
????There is no mint going on today. It looks like BAYC Instagram was hacked. Do not mint anything, click links, or link your wallet to anything.
— Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) April 25, 2022
Soon after realizing the hack, Yuga Labs asked users not to click on any links or mint new tokens and took control over their Instagram account. It’s unknown how hackers got the account compromised, even if it’s secured with a 2FA, claims Yuga Labs.
As they’re now investigating the incident, they reiterated that any official information will only be posted from certain Twitter handles, and never on Instagram. Also, they’re asking people who can share any valuable information on this incident to approach them.
