Credit: Twitter (@Pranksy)
A scammer online convinced an art collector from the UK to spend more than £240,000 ($336,000), for NFT (non-fungible tokens).
According to reports, an anonymous investor bought the token following notification on Discord that it was being sold by someone unknown. NFTs can be described as a unit of data. These are stored on the Blockchain and offer proof of digital ownership for valuable items, such as artworks. NFT tokens are able to be traded online, but also give scammers the opportunity to make money from buyers. The victim is a famous art collector known as Pranksy.
According to BBC reports, the user took Banksy to his official website. Banksy, a well-known British street artist, is the source. One of the links to the site redirects to an auction site that sells Banksy's first NFT, titled "Great Redistribution Of The Climate Change Disaster." BBC reported that the victim claimed the site looked legit because he checked the URL on his computer and mobile phone before bidding. The victim did not know that the link had been placed on the site by the scammer. To get the token, the victim bid 90% higher than the other bidders and then transferred the funds to the fraudster in Ethereum.
"I made the bid only because it was hosted by his site. "I immediately suspected that the bid had been accepted by someone else.
Surprise twist: The scammer gave the amount back to the victim, with the exception of the £5000 transaction fee. The money was returned that evening. The victim said that he didn't expect a refund. He believes that the media coverage about the incident and the fact that he followed the scammer via Twitter influenced him enough to force the fraudster into returning the funds.
It is not clear how the fraudster got Banksy's website to insert a malicious link, as the artist confirmed that there wasn't any NFT for his artworks.
Beware of NFT scams
Beware of scams when you're looking to invest in NFTs. Double-check any website you visit. Use only verified platforms to purchase or sell NFTs, such as OpnSea.io or Crypto.com.
Jean Dubreil