Unfortunately, another phishing scam took place in the NFT space where NFT veteran Todd Kramer had his NFT collection stolen from his wallet. Currently, these stolen assets are worth more than $2.2 million.
Positively, OpenSea froze the stolen assets after the theft was reported.
Let’s see how the scam happened and if you should be worried now?
Todd Kramer and NFT thefts
Todd Kramer’s account links to the Ross + Kramer Art Gallery in New York. Yesterday, the veteran posted a thread on his Twitter account. Where he said that some scammers stole 16 NFTs from his hot wallet. Moreover, Kramer also pleaded OpenSea and NFT community for help.
Additionally, Kramer provided a list of his stolen assets. These include one CloneX, seven Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs, and eight Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.
On the other hand, after OpenSea froze the stolen assets, some traders questioned if the marketplace is still a decentralized platform. Twitter user @kw.sol wrote “Who was able to freeze them? Feels pretty anti-crypto to be asking third parties to do this and ideally they shouldn’t be able to.”
Also, well-known software engineer Grady Booch commented about the lack of decentralization in this case. He further tweeted, “Silly me. And here I thought that the code is the law and that one of the very ideas of cryptocurrencies was the elimination of any possibility of centralized intervention. ”
Currently, Kramer has little means of recovering stolen NFTs, but his experience emphasizes the importance of solid operational security (Opsec) as a cryptocurrency trader or NFT collector.
What is a hot wallet?
Basically, a hot wallet is a type of cryptocurrency that is connected to the internet – majorly MetaMask– when the device is installed. Correspondingly, Kramer lost his assets when he clicked on a malicious link. As a result, the hackers gained access to his hot wallet.
Clearly, a hot wallet is not as safe as a hard wallet. For the uninitiated, a hard wallet is a crypto-wallet that connects to the internet only after the device is manually plugged in each time. Furthermore, the owner has to approve each transaction manually using physical buttons.
NFT Phishing Scams
Todd Kramer is not the only victim of NFT phishing scams. Earlier, NFT collector bergpay.eth lost his 5 Jungle Freaks and 2 Sandbox NFTs from his ethereum based wallet. After which, his ENS domain was transferred to a new address.
Previously, on November 30th,@friesframe shared his frustration when hackers stole his favourite collectables from his hot wallet.
However, in the above two cases, OpenSea didn’t freeze any stolen assets.
For more security, you can connect Ledger to Metamask, which makes the transaction safer. By the same token, write your seed phrases in a secure place and never put them on any mirrored sites since they are prone to hacking.
All investment/financial opinions expressed by NFTevening.com are not recommendations.
This article is educational material.
As always, make your own research prior to making any kind of investment.
