The Twitter account of famous digital artist Mike Winkelmann, often known as Beeple, was hacked on May 22.
This was disclosed on Twitter by Harry Denley, a security analyst at Metamask.
Denley informed users that Beeple’s tweets, which included a link to a giveaway for a Louis Vuitton NFT partnership, were part of a phishing campaign. Denley went on to say that visiting the link will drain cryptocurrency from customers’ wallets.
The fraudster planned this attack in order to profit from Beeple’s recent collaboration with the fashion giant. Beeple created 30 NFTs for Louis Vuitton’s Louis The App mobile game as part of this partnership. The NFTs were included in the game as player incentives.
From Beeple’s account, the fraudster proceeded to publish phishing links. The URLs directed unwitting users to fake Beeple collections. The collections specifically promised a free mint for one-of-a-kind NFTs.
According to on-chain data, the scammer sold the stolen NFTs on OpenSea. The fraudster used a cryptocurrency mixer to launder the money.
Beeple was finally able to regain control of his account. He did, however, warn people to be cautious, saying that anything that seems too good to be true is a scam.
This comes as phishing attacks continue to affect the cryptocurrency and NFT businesses. In the last month, MetaMask warned web3 users using Apple devices to be careful of a phishing attack. This warning was issued after an Apple user lost over $650,000 in NFTs and ApeCoin (APE).
