{"id":21914,"date":"2022-03-25T17:49:04","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T16:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/?p=21914"},"modified":"2022-03-25T17:49:11","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T16:49:11","slug":"fake-apecoin-airdrop-scams-unsuspecting-users-of-1-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/fake-apecoin-airdrop-scams-unsuspecting-users-of-1-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Fake ApeCoin Airdrop scams unsuspecting users of $1 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Earlier this week, a twitter phising scam hacked verified accounts, and began promoting a phony ApeCoin airdrop<\/a> which resulted in the loss of more than $1 million for victims.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"Fake
Fake ApeCoin Airdrop scams unsuspecting users of $1 Million<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Verified accounts were hacked in a Twitter phishing scam, and some of them had Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) profile pictures\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. Through a phoney ApeCoin airdrop, the scam attempted to defraud crypto-savvy users of a little more than $1 million this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ApeCoin is a cryptocurrency that BAYC and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) members can claim. ApeCoin DAO launched it, and the token will be used to power several BAYC spin-off projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fake airdrop this week enticed victims with an ostensibly legitimate tweet from hacked accounts that read, “The Ape Coin launch was a huge success! We've decided to airdrop some more active NFT Traders\/Holders<\/a> as a group. If you don't already have NFTs, you can claim them for 0.33 ETH!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ape Coin Airdrop Scam<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the worst affected NFT collectors<\/a> was Bored Alien Silver Ape. According to Etherscan, he lost over half a million dollars worth of BAYC and MAYC NFTs in the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He immediately blamed an account named Bhawana Ghimire, which he assumed was named after the former CEO of the Nepal Cricket Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The verified account pretended to be a founder of BAYC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rip another Ape owner phished who has lost $500k worth of NFTs (BAYC, MAYC, & more)

Stop connecting your wallet & approving transactions on sketchy sites

Scammer address:https:\/\/t.co\/ju4jS4a0fl<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> pic.twitter.com\/RIbytV0Atu<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/p>— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) March 25, 2022<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/blockquote>

AnChain.AI, a blockchain analytics account, detailed the heist and identified three more compromised accounts involved in the spread of the attack: Dana.eth, who also claimed to be a BAYC founder, Gavin Quinn, a sports journalist, and Mila, a musician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(7\/11) Another exploited account (@aarontcadena<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>) appears to have lost NFTs with a combined value of more than 34 ETH, despite never connecting their wallet to the malicious link pic.twitter.com\/MTdUjZZfPD<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/p>— AnChain.AI (@AnChainAI) March 22, 2022<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/blockquote>

Todd Wasserman, a business journalist, was also identified as having had his account stolen in the fraud by an account called “NFTEthics.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just for the avoidance of doubt. The verified account @BhawanaCAN<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> is an obvious scam promoting an "Ape Coin airdrop" and also the verified account of @ToddWasserman<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> has been hacked and used for scamming.
Almost nothing is what it seems, and if it seems too good to be true, it is. pic.twitter.com\/skw6d6jnFi<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/p>— NFT Ethics (@NFTethics) March 24, 2022<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/blockquote>

Many verified personas, including NFT 365 podcaster Fanzo (@iSocialFanz), were conned out of their crypto holdings in addition to the commandeered accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fanzo worked for the US Department of Defense for a decade, specializing in cybersecurity<\/a>, and despite never opening the malicious link, his wallet was compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(5\/11) Included among the accounts being spammed was @iSocialFanz<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> (aka Fanzo), host of the @NFT365Podcast<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, and someone who is quite technical (having spent a decade with the U.S. DoD focused on cybersecurity) pic.twitter.com\/1OucPWFqvR<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/p>— AnChain.AI (@AnChainAI) March 22, 2022<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/blockquote>

Similarly, despite never connecting his wallet to the bogus URL, Aarontc.eth lost nearly 34 Ethereum worth of NFTs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(6\/11) Oddly, Fanzo appears to have had his wallet exploited despite never clicking the malicious link pic.twitter.com\/lmnY9JiXZJ<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/p>— AnChain.AI (@AnChainAI) March 22, 2022<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/blockquote>

All of the accounts that had been compromised appear to have been returned to their owners. Until then, the scam had proven to be a profitable endeavour for the perpetrator, who had apparently made over $1 million in cryptocurrency<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, a twitter phising scam hacked verified accounts, and began promoting a phony ApeCoin airdrop which resulted in the loss of more than $1 million for victims. Verified accounts were hacked in a Twitter phishing scam, and some of them had Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) profile pictures . Through a phoney ApeCoin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":21111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,21],"tags":[5964,8322,8323,366,482],"class_list":["post-21914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-altcoin-news","category-news","tag-bayc","tag-apecoin-airdrop","tag-mayc-2","tag-scam","tag-twitter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-124.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}