BAYC NFT holder loses NFTs worth $567,000 to scammer

A holder of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT has suffered a major loss after being targeted by scammers. The victim was duped into exchanging valuable collectibles for PNG images that did not have any value.

BAYC holder loses $567,000 NFTs

A pseudonymous 0xQuit published details about how the victim in question, s27, lost BAYC #1584. The BAYC #1584 is ranked among the 119 bubble gum apes with a rarity score of 111.99 out of 10,000. This indicates that the NFT is uncommon, giving a higher market value.

The other NFTs lost are two Mutant Ape derivatives, namely #13168 and $13169. The victim lost these NFTs after engaging in a direct swap with the scammer to trade the NFTs through a third-party platform known as swapkiwi.

Third-party platforms such as swapkiwi are preferred by some traders because they charge low transaction fees compared to other platforms such as OpenSea. After the victim entered into a trade, the scammer traded fake NFTs and received authentic Bored Ape and Mutant Apes.

Swapkiwi features blamed for the theft

The scammer used fake copies of the Bored Ape NFTs and uploaded them on OpenSea. 0xQuit says that the scammer took advantage of the features offered on swapkiwi. The platform lists NFTs with a display showing that they are verified. The verification appears within the image, making it easy for scammers to go around this verification by saving an image of a verified Bored Ape NFT and including a verification mark on it.

0xQuit noted that this was a fault with swapkiwi because having the checkmark inside the image made it easy to manipulate. The user noted that swapkiwi should have the verification message outside the image to prevent such attacks from happening.

0xQuit further said that it would be easier for the platform users to verify the authenticity of NFTs if swapkiwi links the NFT collection to the contract address of NFTs. As s27 was unable to verify the authenticity of the NFTs, they received worthless images. The NFTs received by the scammer were valued at more than $570,000.

The scammer has already sold the stolen NFTs. The bubble gum ape has been sold for 98 ETH, valued at around $337,000. This is lower than the floor price of a BAYC NFT, 111 ETH. The Mutant Ape derivatives have also been sold at lower prices than their floor prices. This was seemingly done to lure buyers and ensure the NFTs are sold quickly.

Swapkiwi has released a statement regarding this scam, saying that it was working on upgrades that will allow users to verify the authenticity of NFTs. However, this is not the first time NFT holders have fallen victim to such scams. In most cases, the theft of NFTs is attributed to the failure of users to heed the security measures published by these platforms.

NFTs have gained significant value, which could be behind the sector being targeted by fraudsters. BAYC holders are usually high targets, given the value of these NFTs.