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Web3 Builders Lose Dozens of High-Value NFTs in Back-to-Back Attacks
Nikhil Gopalani, COO of an NFT project owned by Nike, and CryptoNovo, a prominent NFT collector, lost NFTs estimated to have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to scammers.
By Eli Tan
Updated Jan 9, 2023, 9:10 p.m. Published Jan 5, 2023, 12:09 a.m.
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Two prominent Web3 builders lost dozens of high-value non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to scammers over the past few days after their crypto wallets were compromised.
The first victim was pseudonymous NFT collector CryptoNovo, who tweeted on Tuesday that he had been hacked.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
I just got hacked!!!
— CryptoNovo (@CryptoNovo311) January 4, 2023
Are you kidding me!?! pic.twitter.com/r1xS0mhD6P
The attacker appears to have made off with a hefty haul – three CryptoPunks, a Bored Ape, a Mutant Ape, three Meebits and two CloneX NFTs.
Within 16 hours of taking over the wallet, the new owner was able to sell all 10 NFTs for a total of 492.66 ETH, worth around $618,000 at the time of writing. The funds were then apparently transferred to an account on crypto exchange ChangeNOW, according to on-chain sleuth ZachXBT.
It appears that an attacker may have also taken over CryptoNovo’s Discord account in an attempt to steal more funds.
“DO NOT send anything to anyone using my name and account number!” CryptoNovo said in a tweet. “The Discord you see below is a fake account.”
I have not asked anyone for anything. DO NOT send anything to anyone using my name and account number! The discord you see below is a fake account. A couple other CryptoPunks owners have scammers acting as them as well. pic.twitter.com/9YWcTLYAJd
— CryptoNovo (@CryptoNovo311) January 4, 2023
Another attacker had targeted Nikhil Gopalani, chief operating officer at RTFKT, an NFT project now owned by Nike (NKE). According to Gopalani, his wallet was drained due to a phishing scam.
Hey Clone X community - I was hacked by a clever Phisher (same phone # as apple ID) & sold all my clone x / some other nfts... Obviously pretty upset and hurt by this and I havent really been able to move all day. Hope people who bought my clones love them (being positive)
— Nikhil Gopalani (@Nikgopalani) January 3, 2023
It appears that two wallets drained Gopalani’s collection, making off with 19 CloneX NFTs, 18 RTKFT Space Pods, 17 Loot Pods, 11 CryptoKicks and 19 RTFKT Animus Eggs. Not all of the NFTs have been sold, and it is difficult to estimate the exact value of each NFT, though the collection is likely worth upward of $140,000, based on the current floor prices of each collection.
Neither CryptoNovo nor Gopalani immediately responded to requests for comment.
Read more: NFT Scams: How to Avoid Falling Victim
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