Hackers stole $438 000 using artist Beeple’s Twitter account

What’s new? On May 22, hackers hacked into the Twitter account of the famous NFT artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple. For five hours, the scammers posted phishing links, which were supposedly used to raffle non-fungible tokens, stealing more than $438 000 from users of the social network. This was reported by Harry Denly, a security analyst.

If we assume everything is secure, at time of this tweet the bad actors managed to scam:Scam #136ETH (~$72k)0xf305 is yet to withdrawScam #262.35ETH (~$125k)37.59WETH (~$75k)45 NFTs (est ~$166k)Total = $438k (active for ~5hours)— harry.eth 🦊💙 (whg.eth) (@sniko_) May 22, 2022

How did events develop? An analysis of one of the wallets belonging to the scammers showed that the first link brought in around 36 ETH ($72 000). Through the second link, the hackers obtained ETH and NFTs worth over $365 000 from collections such as Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), VeeFriends, and Otherdeeds. Beeple later regained control of his account.

What is known about Beeple? Mike Winkelmann is a digital artist and graphic designer. He is the creator of three of the ten most expensive NFTs sold in history, including a non-fungible token that was bought for $69,3 million. Beeple collaborated with the fashion house Louis Vuitton to create NFTs for the participants of the game, Louis: The Game, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of the brand’s founder.

What events happened before? On April 25, a hacker hacked into the official Instagram account of the NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). The attacker managed to steal 91 NFTs worth around $2,8 million using phishing. The hacker spread a malicious link under the pretext of a fake airdrop.

Earlier, on April 1, the Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord server was also hacked. The hacker posted a malicious link on the server, but only managed to steal 1 MAYC #8662, 1 BAYC #3738, and two NFTs from the Doodles collection.

The Rare Bears NFT project suffered a similar attack on the Discord server, losing 179 NFTs worth 286 ETH ($800 000 at the time of the hack). The hacker also used phishing software.