Hackers steal crypto and NFTs after hacking Beeple’s Twitter account

Mike Winkelmann, a popular creator of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has become the victim of a Twitter account hack. Winkelmann is popular for his Beeple NFT that raked in $69 million last year.

Beeple’s Twitter account hacked

Beeple’s Twitter account was hacked on Sunday as part of a phishing scheme. A security analyst at MetaMask, Harry Denley, alerted users that posts made on the Beeple Twitter account were fake. These tweets promoted a link that led to a raffle page for a Louis Vuitton NFT.

However, the raffle was fake, with the hackers using the opportunity to phish for user credentials and using them later to steal crypto out of user wallets. The scammers were looking to dupe NFT enthusiasts who had heard about Beeple’s latest collaboration with Louis Vuitton. Beeple created 30 NFTs for the Louis Vuitton video game “Louis The Game”. The NFTs are used as rewards for players within the game.

Besides promoting fake news of this collaboration, the scammer also posted phishing links for fake Beeple NFTs. These links lured users to visit them by promising them a free minting option for unique NFTs.

These malicious links remained on Beeple’s Twitter account for five hours. An on-chain analysis also showed that one of the wallets belonging to the scammer had received 36 Ether (ETH), valued at around $73,000, through the first phishing link.

The scammer also received around 365,000 worth of Ethereum and other valuable NFTs using the second link. Some of the NFTs falsely acquired by the scammer include the Otherdeeds, the Mutant Ape Yacht Club and VeeFriends. The total value stolen by the hacker from these NFTs brought the title to $438,000.

On-chain data also shows that the scammer was selling these NFTs on the OpenSea marketplace, and they were laundering the stolen Ether tokens using a crypto mixer to hide their transfer data.

In a later tweet, Beeple said that he had regained control of his Twitter account. He also warned his followers to be cautious and not fall victim to these scams, adding that anything too good to be true was actually a scam.

The popularity of Beeple NFTs

Beeple NFTs have become increasingly popular, and they are some of the most valuable ones in the market. Beeple has released three NFTs out of the top-ten most valuable pieces in the market. One of these NFTs was sold for $69.3 million, making it the most expensive piece to be sold to a single owner. However, the popularity of Beeple NFTs has also made them vulnerable to hacks.

This is not the first hack to happen with Beeple. An admin account of Beeple’s Discord was hacked where scammers were also promoting similar fake NFT drops that caused users to lose around 38 Ether (ETH).

Early this month, Malwarebytes, a cybersecurity firm, published a report that depicted an increase in phishing scams where people tried to obtain money maliciously following the increased popularity of NFTs. The firm also said that malicious websites that mimicked genuine websites were the main common tip used by scammers.