During the hype surrounding Yuga Labs Otherside NFT drop scammers swindled millions of dollars worth of high-priced NFTs from unsuspecting collectors
During the hype surrounding Yuga Labs’ Otherside NFT drop, scammers swindled millions of dollars worth of high-priced NFTs from unsuspecting collectors.
Phishing scammers continue to prey on NFT collectors, and members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club are among the most common victims.
Impact Of Yuga Labs’ Otherside NFT Drop
A simple Twitter search for “Otherdeed,” Yuga Labs’ virtual land NFT offered as part of its upcoming “metaverse” game Otherside, yields a non-exhaustive list of accounts offering giveaways, lotteries, raffles, refunds for transaction fees, and chances to claim Otherdeed NFTs.
Scammers are among them, with phishing scams aimed at those who were stung by high gas prices during the Otherdeed sale’s frenzy this weekend.
The sale generated $180 million in Ethereum gas fees, the majority of which were either burned or sent to a dead-end address.
Aside from that, the high volume of traffic that the highly anticipated sale brought to Ethereum caused bottlenecks, resulting in failed transactions for which people were still required to pay fees, which in some cases ran into the thousands of dollars.
Following Yuga Labs’ promise to refund gas fees for failed transactions, a slew of accounts and websites posing as the official Otherside account arose, raking in millions of dollars in stolen NFTs and ETH.
Crypto Scammers Took Advantage Of Yuga Labs Otherside NFT Drop
Crypto scammers took advantage of Yuga Labs’ Otherside NFT drop, which made the company around $310 million in a matter of hours on Sunday.
The sale of the Yuga Labs project was dubbed the largest NFT drop in history, and scammers went all out to take advantage of the publicity. Over the last few days, phishing websites imitating Otherside have stolen at least $3.7 million in NFTs.
At least five fraudulent Twitter accounts with corresponding phishing websites posed as Otherside in the run-up to the drop, according to crypto security firm Peckshield.
They tricked collectors into connecting their digital wallets in order to register for a fake NFT drop, APE token airdrop, or “gas refund,” then duped them into signing a transaction allowing the hackers to drain their wallets.
Despite the fact that the Otherside drop sold out quickly, minters collectively spent $165 million in fees as a result of high demand and poorly-written smart contract code.
Because the network was so congested when the drop went live, successful minters were forced to spend around $7,000 to complete their transaction.
Many unsuspecting NFT collectors appear to have fallen for the scam sites offering gas refunds and extra rounds of Otherside NFT mints in the days following the drop.
Another had collectors connect their wallets to a fake Otherside Lands raffle list, while another simply displayed a fake countdown to a fictitious mint.
Scammers Made 5 Bored Ape NFTs, 12 Mutant Apes, 36 Otherdeeds
While the full extent of the phishing attacks’ damage to collectors is unknown, on-chain data suggests that scammers have taken at least $3.7 million in NFTs.
Scammers appear to have made at least five Bored Ape NFTs, 12 Mutant Apes, 36 Otherdeeds, and various other less-valuable NFTs worth around $2.7 million at current floor prices, according to one phishing website recently highlighted by popular crypto sleuth zachxbt.
The scammers’ wallets contain a haul of stolen NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, as well as other valuable collections, according to Zerion data.
According to zachxbt, another wallet with the 0xb8 prefix also stole four Mutant Ape NFTs, one Bored Ape, and over 30 Sandbox NFTs worth $1.03 million.
He also claimed that the 0xb8 wallet led to the discovery of two more wallets containing four Bored Ape, two Mutant Ape, two World of Women, and 19 Azuki NFTs worth a total of $5.1 million.
If the latter is true, Otherside scammers made around $8.8 million in NFTs alone, without accounting for any other crypto assets that may have been stolen in the process.
Other NFT Scam Alerts
Despite the scam accounts’ best efforts to replicate Yuga Labs’ Otherside project, there were some red flags, such as suspicious aesthetics, that raised doubts about their authenticity.
Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a long line of similar phishing scams that have targeted the NFT community, particularly those who own the prized NFTs of the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Last week, a scammer hacked the official Instagram account of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and posted a malicious link that enticed holders to send $2.7 million in NFTs.
A few weeks prior, the Discord server of Bored Ape Yacht Club was hacked, resulting in the theft of NFTs from Bored Ape Yacht Club, Doodles, and other collections.
Scammers have moved in to take advantage of the chaos, days after the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club promised to refund anyone who paid thousands of dollars in Ethereum fees for a failed transaction after a virtual land sale clogged the blockchain and wasted millions.
Technique Used By Phishers
Some phishers use misspellings of “Otherside” to create a phony account that redirects to a different website. There’s an “OthersideMeta” account, a “Meta1Otherside” account, “Other SideMeta,” a fake but verified Otherside Meta account with the handle “ritaguera25,” and a slew of other accounts.
Each of these sites retweets the original Otherside account to appear legitimate, has bios with the legitimate Discord link, and usually includes a link to a website that offers to refund your gas fees if you connect your wallet in a tweet or in their bio.