Animoca Brands to Cover Loses After Phantom Galaxies’ Discord Hack

Amidst Phantom Galaxies’ Discord hack, Animoca Brands reassured the community that they would take responsibility. In a press release, the global game publisher confirmed that they would cover the victims’ losses. Unfortunately, the hackers were able to steal 265 ETH or about $1.1 Million in 3 hours.

The team has yet to disclose the process, but users can finally rest easy because Animoca Brands saves the day! It will involve transfers to users to cover the amounts stolen by the hackers or the delivery of equivalent value.

Breaking Down Phantom Galaxies’ Discord Hack

The hack of the Phantom Galaxies Discord server occurred in the early hours of November 19, 2021. Basically, unknown hackers gained access to the upcoming futuristic open-world game’s Discord account. Then, they took over to defraud the users.

According to the post-mortem report, a malware bot compromised the two-factor authentication for the Admin account of the Discord server of Phantom Galaxies. Once in control, they banned all staff accounts as well as all accounts of advisors and community moderators.

The hackers posted fraudulent announcements on the channel claiming that the game was launching an immediate surprise NFT minting event – a stealth mint. Then, they directed users to a fraudulent website that purported to be a Phantom Galaxies NFT minting platform. The fake minting platform charged users a 0.1 ETH “minting fee” that did not actually mint anything. Instead, it simply transferred the funds to the scammers’ Ethereum wallet address.

Animoca Brands and Phantom Galaxies’ Response

Phantom Galaxies is the global game publisher’s first project with newly acquired Blowfish Studios. Together, the partners claim to have built the “biggest bad-add mechas on the blockchain. It features an open-world space sim with fast-paced mech shooter and a captivating story.”

Some members of the senior management of Animoca Brands were the first to become aware of the scam on the Discord server and of the fraudulent website. Unfortunately, the hackers had already taken control of the Discord server and restricted access to everyone else by this point.

Blowfish is based in Australia, so it was already 3 AM – 4 AM in their timezone when the attack happened. So Animoca Brands led the immediate response and efforts since they are based in Hong Kong, three hours behind Sydney.

Animoca Brands’ executive chairman and co-founder Yat Siu tweeted an alert from his Twitter account, tagging the official Phantom Galaxies Twitter account. Then, the management also contacted Discord to report the problem. The platform took emergency steps to restrict access to the Phantom Galaxies Discord server and remove the fraudulent posts.

As of press time, Blowfish Studio is already on top of the situation and they have regained access to the Discord channel.

Discord x NFTs x Scams

Remember when Discord’s CEO hinted at integrating NFTs into the platform and it was met with community backlash? Amidst the sea of disapproval, the top sentiment is how a vast number of scams already permeate Discord Channels. So integrating NFTs, will further encourage and entice more.

A Discord channel is a must-have for every NFT Project. So, the negative comments were quite surprising. Things got so bad to the point that Discord backtracked on its plans.

In view of the recent Discord hacks and scams, it turns out, the customers are indeed right!  Discord has now backtracked on its plans to introduce NFTs to its platform. Just yesterday, we covered a story about how Global security solutions provider Morphisec discovered a new NFT Discord hack.  The malware called Babadeda crypter runs the scam by impersonating OpenSea, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and ZED RUN marketplace accounts.