Crypto sleuth ZachXBT who describes himself as a rug pull survivor turned 2D detective. He posted on Twitter revealing French phishing scammers that have stolen millions worth of NFTs.
The on-chain analyst and investigator have tracked down two scammers involved in defrauding investors of their Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs from their trail of transactions. The two french phishing scammers are believed to be involved in multiple scams since December 2021, leading to illicit profits of over $2.5 million.
Back in December 2021, the two scammers targeted their first victim, Twitter user Dilly Dally for Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) #237.
The user fell prey to a scam after clicking on a link shared by a verified member of the BAYC Discord and approving a transaction on a website. Doing this, Dilly Dally was led to believe that he would produce an animated version of his BAYC.
This is how he lost his BAYC from his wallet which after the approved transaction landed in hands of the scammers. The scammers sold BAYC #237 for $178,000 (47 ETH).
ZachXBT also exposed a scam that took place on January 5, 2022. Another victim Twitter user El Mono back then phished for BAYC #2083 after messaging a scammer (exyt) on Instagram.
In January 2022, the phishing scammers similarly aimed at another Twitter user Tumulo who was also phished for BAYC #6166 after messaging the same scammer on Twitter.
The scamming activities didn’t stop and around March 21, 2022, yet another Twitter user Black Apple Art was phished for BAYC #71, #5964 and #8599 after being tagged in a Tweet by a stolen verified Twitter account.
Eleven days later, the above-mentioned scam Twitter user Jason Stone also lost his BAYC #181 the same way. That’s not all, the same scammers phished 2 MAYC & 1 Doodles as well from three additional victims.
All these scams amounted to a total loss of over $2.5 million but it’s unclear where the fund went or who was potentially behind it. However, the investigator identified the two scammers as Mathys and Camille from France but real persons behind the names still remain shrouded.
Though ZachXBT concluded his investigation with photographic evidence, one of the scammers managed to deactivate their Twitter handles while the other went private. Fortunately, all the tweets were saved offline before the article was published.
It appears that these two thieves were clever in gaining victims’ confidence but not enough so as to cover their tracks.
Also Read: BAYC’s Yuga Labs Warns of Targeted Attack on NFT Communities
