Hackers are running away with about $438,000 worth of crypto after compromising the Twitter account of popular digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple.
Beeple announced the hack on Sunday morning, noting that everything was back under control.
“Stay safe out there. Anything too good to be true IS A… SCAM.
And as side note, there will never be a SURPRISE MINT. I mention one time in one place starting at 6am Sunday morning.”
Harry Denley, a security researcher who works with popular crypto wallet MetaMask, says that after gaining access to Beeple’s Twitter account, the bad actors posted two separate links to phishing websites.
The first link comes with an invitation to join a raffle where participants must send one Ethereum (ETH) to have a chance of winning a unique piece, according to a screenshot posted by Denley.
The second link involves an advertisement claiming Beeple is giving away 200 unique artworks.
According to Denley, the first link scored 36 Ethereum worth nearly $72,000. The second scam netted about $366,000 worth of Ethereum, Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Beeple is famous for creating “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” a collage of 5,000 unique images made by the artist over nearly 14 years.
The artwork sold for a record price of $69.34 million at Christie’s auction house last year. It was the first purely digital NFT-based artwork to be offered by a major auction house.
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