Bored Ape’s Instagram account was in fact hacked causing the theft of nft for millions of dollars, Yuga Labs, the company that manages the token project launched last April, announced on Twitter.
The cybercriminals, after taking over the account, announced a fake airdrop, a distribution of free NFTs in the upcoming Otherside metaverse project, encouraging users to click on a link. Instead, the link gave scammers control of users’ MetaMask crypto wallets. The fraudulent link reportedly went to a page that resembled the Bored Ape Yacht Club website.
It is currently unclear how the scammers entered Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Instagram account. “At the time of the hack, two-factor authentication was enabled and the security surrounding the Instagram account was following best practices,” did know Yuga Labs. After removing all links to Instagram from its services, the company has regained control of the account and is “investigating how the hacker gained access with the Instagram team,” he added.
Four NFTs from Bored Ape Yacht Club, six from Mutant Ape Yacht Club and three from Bored Ape Kennel Club were stolen during the scam for an estimated value of more than $ 2.5 million. Right now, each bored monkey is worth a minimum of $ 430,000 (145 ethereum). The Bored Ape Kennel Club dogs were made available free to Bored Ape owners last June and now cost as little as 42,000 (14 ether).
The Mutant Ape Yacht Club collection was launched last August via an airdrop and now a single token has a minimum price of 117 thousand dollars (39 ethereum). However, the scam did not only concern Bayc tokens: a user also lost his nft Clone X, worth about 54 thousand dollars. In all, around a hundred tokens were stolen, according to The Block.
Meanwhile, on Etherscan, a wallet linked to cybercriminals has been reported for phishing. OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace in the world, has put a suspicious activity label on stolen merchandise, but whoever stole the tokens has already uploaded several to LooksRare, another NFT market, reports Cnet. The four nft Bored Ape alone sold for $ 1.6 million.
The incident involving Bored Ape Yacht Club is just the latest nft theft made thanks to a phishing scam. In February, several OpenSea users lost access to around 250 tokens worth an estimated $ 1.4 million.
