Billy Murray’s Ethereum wallet hacked after NFT sale

by James · September 4, 2022

A veil of gloom engulfed actor Bill Murray after a hacker made off with 119.2 ETH or close to $185,000, raised at a charity fundraiser for a non-fungible token ticket that gave the winner a chance to grab a beer with the celebrity.

According to on-chain data from Etherscan and Murray’s promotion team, the hackers kept an eye and ear on Murray’s personal wallet throughout the sale. At approximately 7:00 PM when the sale was completed, hackers withdrew the money from the wallet before the sale ended.
The auction, organized by The Shack in partnership with Coinbase’s NFT World, was a collectible item that is part of actor Bill Murray’s “Bill Murray 1000” collection which seeks to give fans a blockchain experience by dining with the famous actor.

“Only 82 of the 1,000 NFTs in the collection have been issued so far (only 1/1 come with beer tools), and the cheapest issue is listed on Coinbase’s (COIN) marketplace for 11 ETH, or nearly $17,000.” Coinbase said in a statement.

Table of Contents

Hackers transferred funds to Binance-linked addresses

The hackers used fake identities to transfer money to a wallet address linked to crypto exchange Binance and Unionchain.ai until a security team from NFT consultancy Project Venkman stepped in to protect the actor’s NFTs by masquerading the expensive JPEGs as a Damien Hirst NFT , two CryptoPunks, a Pudgy Penguin, a Cool Cat and many flower girls that were already in the wallet.
It is reported that the hacker also tried to make off with 800 NFTs from the actor’s collection reserved in his personal account, but the security team quickly ran a script to stop the transfer when alerted to the fraudulent activity.

Police report to catch the thieves

Six JPEG collectors participated in the bidding process to dine with the actor, and the process attracted 60 bids. Brant Boersma, a Coinbase user, beat them all, winning a date with the famous actor who will also pose for a portrait. It is unclear if the date will still happen with the theft of the funds, a police report has been filed and Chainalysis is working with the police to track down and arrest the culprits.

For Be[In]Crypto’s Latest Bitcoin (BTC) Analysis, click here.

Disclaimer

All information on our website is published in good faith and for general information purposes only. Any action the reader takes on the information contained on our website is strictly at their own risk.