By George Ward
Over the past month, two fraudulent Twitter accounts, @Stevedoes100x and @CyrusPunk9623, pretending to be Azuki and CryptoPunk, have swindled more than $136,500 (equivalent to 80.3 ETH) from victims. The disclosure of this scam is the latest instance in a series of hacks and fraudulent activities that have plagued the world of cryptocurrency.
Crypto Users Fall For Fake Giveaways
ZachXBT, a popular crypto Twitter detective and blockchain investigator, made the revelation recently in a Twitter post. The fraudsters disclosed that they had established more than 13 open-edition projects throughout that period.
Also, the two fraudulent accounts organized fake giveaways. Sean Bonner, a Twitter user, opined that one person might be operating both accounts.
Additionally, Bonner revealed that he exposed their giveaways, which prompted the two accounts to block him immediately. In response, Zach XBT suggested this might be the case, as the two accounts share similar wallets.
Additionally, Bob Troia, the co-founder of Awesome Labs LCC, reported that he detected fraudulent activity during a minting process. He said the maximum supply for a BTC Ordinal Apepunk was increased from 999 to 1111 midway through the mint.
Most of those who replied to Zach XBT’s disclosure rebuked the two accounts. Notably, they praised the efforts of the Twitter investigator in helping prevent more victims.
Some individuals, however, criticized those who were deceived by the scam. They labeled the victims as “lazy” and “pathetic” for failing to recognize the obvious warning signs presented by the fraudulent accounts.
Fraudsters Flood The NFT Space
At the time of writing, the Twitter account @CyrusPunk9623 remains active, with all its posts still visible. However, it has been inactive since the exposé.
Conversely, the account for @Stevedoes100x is no longer visible. It appears the user has deleted the account. A brief search indicates that it no longer exists.
Meanwhile, the NFT industry has seen a rise in fraudulent activities, particularly NFT scams. As of January 2023, Kevin Rose, the founder of PROOF Collective, fell victim to a scam that resulted in a loss of over $1 million worth of NFTs.
The scam involved a phishing attempt allowing the hacker to access Rose’s Azuki Twitter account. The hacker posted a link and asked the followers to click it. As a result, NFTs worth over $800,000 was lost.
According to ZachXBT, the same wallet responsible for defrauding Rose of their NFTs has also purportedly stolen 75 ETH valued at approximately $121,000 from a different victim. Furthermore, the investigator asserts that the perpetrator converted the stolen ETH into Bitcoin and utilized a coin mixer to conceal the path of the funds.