Once again, a new cryptocurrency scam has emerged. This time, however, it targeted the $5 billion-valued Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and the owners of its NFT apes.
On Monday, the official Twitter account of the Bored Ape Yacht Club announced that the company's Instagram account had been compromised.
The BAYC account tweeted, "There is no minting happening today. It appears that the BAYC Instagram has been hacked. Do not mint anything, click on any links, or connect your wallet to any suspicious sources."
However, the warning seems to have come too late. The individual who hacked the BAYC Instagram quickly exploited the access they gained. The BAYC Instagram shared a link directing Bored Ape investors to a page where they could supposedly link their crypto wallets and claim an exclusive freebie only available to BAYC holders.
In reality, that link drained the wallets of those who held ape NFTs. According to Web3 Is Going Great creator Molly White, approximately 44 people fell victim to the scam, resulting in the theft of 133 NFTs from their rightful owners.
Blockchain investigator @zachxbt delved into the wallet address of the hacker and discovered that 4 Bored Apes, 7 Mutant Apes, and 3 Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs were among the highly-valued NFTs that were stolen. These pilfered NFTs are estimated to be worth around $3 million based on previous secondary market sales.
It seems that the thief is already selling the stolen non-fungible tokens on the NFT secondary market as well. According to Molly White, 23 of the stolen NFTs have been sold, fetching a total of approximately $2.4 million.
It remains unclear how the BAYC Instagram account was hacked. In a statement provided to Vice, BAYC owner Yuga Labs stated that two-factor authentication had been enabled for the Instagram account, a security measure that should have made unauthorized access to the account extremely challenging.