NFT Trader loses $145k worth of BAYC to phishing attack 

An NFT trader recently lost over $145,000 worth of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collectibles to a phishing attack amid the growing rate of scam schemes that have plagued the cryptocurrencyo scene.

On-chain security platform PeckShield brought attention to the movements in an X post on May 9. 

The attack resulted in losing three BAYC NFTs. The incident, which began at 17:47 UTC on May 8, saw BAYC 7531 transferred from tatis.eth to the phishing account. Subsequently, the attacker moved BAYC 6736 and BAYC 2100 to the same address. 

The malicious actor, identified as Pink Drainer, has absconded with the three BAYC NFTs at press time, selling them for a total of 48.5 ETH, equivalent to $145,000. The sales were carried out on leading NFT marketplaces Seaport and Blur.

This incident follows previous reports of nefarious activities in the cryptocurrency space. In December 2023, the same hacker group was reported to have stolen Chainlink (LINK) tokens worth $4.4 million. 

The hackers utilized deceptive tactics, tricking users into authorizing transactions linked to the “IncreaseAllowance” function, resulting in losses totaling 275,700 LINK.

Notably, the fourth quarter of last year saw a prevalence of these hacks. Last October, JPEG’d, an NFT protocol, alerted its community to several malicious platforms mimicking its services, aiming to secure transaction approvals before draining users of NFTs and digital assets. 

Similarly, in December 2023, Flooring Protocol, a liquidity solution for NFTs, fell victim to an exploit when its peripheral or multi-call smart contract was attacked. The attacker subsequently dumped stolen NFTs. In response, the protocol’s developers deployed a solution to address the vulnerability.