NFT blogger falls prey to a phishing Google ad link campaign, loses assets to hackers
For well-known NFT hobbyists, this year has yet to get off to a good start. Many con artists target the NFTs of well-known collectors and influencers to steal them. Recently, a crypto influencer named NFT God became a victim of yet another hack.
Hackers targeting crypto influencers
NFT God, a well-known crypto enthusiast, lost his assets yesterday night. Hackers stole all of his NFTs and crypto, just like they did to other NFT collectors.
Over 24 hours, the hackers managed to infiltrate every communication route he had with his neighbors and family. The user’s wallets, Twitter, Substack, Gmail, and Discord accounts were all broken into and seized by the crooks.
Details of the Hack
The well-known NFT influencer described how he fell prey to phishing after installing common video streaming software (OBS). He went to install OBS, a widely used video streaming program, onto their desktop computer because he was eager to live stream some video games for the first time.
He mistakenly clicked on a Google paid ad, and although he downloaded the software, nothing transpired when he tapped on the .exe file. The NFT blogger shook it off and continued to play a game for a few hours without any problems, concluding that perhaps live streaming wasn’t for him.
However, he received a DM from a user named @kloss_eth informing him that his Twitter had been hacked while he was out picking up his better half other from the ferry. Upon checking, he discovered the hackers had hijacked his NFT God and @1BetterbyNFTGod accounts.
After discovering the problem barely two minutes after the links went live, he promptly erased the fraudulent tweets that the hackers had sent out.
Relentless efforts from the hackers
Unfortunately, the onslaught didn’t stop there. After arriving home, the NFT blogger received a DM from a buddy asking whether he had “WETH’d their ape.” He checked his Opensea bookmark for their digital ape and discovered that the owner was listed as another wallet. He eventually realized that just about everything, including his cryptocurrency and NFTs, had been taken from him.
The next morning, after a restless night, he came across several messages and emails. His most important project in life, the result of all his devotion, had been taken over by hackers. There are more than 16,000 subscribers to the group.
The 16,000 subscribers received two emails from the hackers that contained phishing URLs. NFT God claimed that next to losing his crypto holdings, losing the community was the most agonizing experience.
The main cause, according to Yu Xian, the head of the security firm SlowMist, is that the device ran a gaming application that contained a Trojan horse. As a result, the mnemonic of the encoded asset was connected to the Internet on this machine, making it vulnerable to theft by hackers and other bad actors.
