Hackers got control of BAYC’s Instagram account on April 25 and reportedly stole 24 Bored Apes and 30 Mutant Apes, valued at around $13.7 million.
Scammers created a post mentioning the upcoming BAYC metaverse launch, which was set for April 30. The post announced a land airdrop and requested users to connect their addresses.
Damn the BAYC Instagram hacker stole 4 BAYC, 7 MAYC, 3 BAKC, 1 CloneX, & more ( 91 NFTs in total)
Hacker Address:https://t.co/0ngJ4SKV4G pic.twitter.com/9U2OGPKMmP
— zachxbt (@zachxbt) April 25, 2022
Hackers transferred Bored Ape and Mutant Ape NFTs in the connected wallets to a new wallet address. Roughly 54 apes were stolen, based on the opensea transfers
‘News about the hack first surfaced on social media and Reddit, after which the official BAYC account confirmed it.
BAYC said its Instagram had been hacked and it will suspend minting for a day.
🚨There is no mint going on today. It looks like BAYC Instagram was hacked. Do not mint anything, click links, or link your wallet to anything.
— Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) April 25, 2022
Earlier attacks on BAYC holders
BAYC community has become a frequent target for scammers in recent months.
On April 1, BAYC’s Discord server was hacked. The hacker used April Fools to get attention and managed to post malicious minting links. The owner of MAYC #8662, Taiwanese pop superstar Jay Chou, fell prey to the attack and lost his NFT, valued at $550 thousand.
Four days later, on April 5, a pseudonymous ape holder lost three of his NFTs to a fake verification scam. They transferred their BAYC#1584, MAYC #13168, and MAYC#13169 to receive their verified versions of equal value. The attacker sent fake pictures and sold the authentic NFTs for 5% below their floor price. In December 2021, a bored ape NFT collector fell for a phishing scam and lost eight Bored Ape and seven Mutant Ape NFTs by clicking on a phishing contract disguised as a genuine NFT dApp. The lost apes were valued at roughly $2.2 million.
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