New BAYC owner got scammed just two hours after buying $116K NFT
The proud owner of a Bored Ape bought for $116,000 fell victim to a scammer just two hours later.
The latest incident is just one of many Bored Ape thefts that have occurred in August, as ownership of one of the simian NFTs becomes an increasingly uncertain prospect.
Now you own a Bored Ape
The latest Bored Ape theft was made public on Twitter this Saturday thanks to the investigative work of crypto sleuth ZachXBT. In accordance ZachXBT The NFT was quickly sold or “flipped” after the theft before the thief went on to change the chain on RenBridge.
A cross-chain bridge is a way of trying to hide crypto transactions. It’s one alternative to using a coin mixing service and one that could become increasingly attractive now that Tornado Cash finds itself in the crossfire of regulators.
Earlier this month, chain analytics firm Elliptic released a report saying significant amounts of money have been laundered through RenBridge over the past two years.
According to Elliptic RenBridge, “has been used to launder at least $540 million in crypto-assets originating from theft, fraud, ransomware and various other types of criminal activity since 2020.”
London-based Elliptic, which is a partner of Coinbase, has further linked RenBridge to ransom gangs in Russia and North Korea.
Now you don’t
While the latest Bored Ape theft may have set some kind of record for the fastest disappearing act in NFTs, the theft is by no means an isolated incident.
August has witnessed a significant number of NFT thefts, many of them involving Bored Apes. The theft and subsequent flipping of Bored Apes has almost become an industry in itself.
August 7 Steven Galanis reported he had lost his Bored Ape as well as other assets in an exploit of his AppleID. The theft was later linked to a Binance account when the thief attempted to withdraw money.
On August 13, Bored Ape owner Philneeds were scammed out of their monkey by a trade involving fake crypto tokens. Phillneeds transferred Bored Ape to the thief via NFT Trader and received 26,500 fake Ape coins in return.
August 16, a phishing scam swiped four Bored Apes worth a total of $500,000. Among the stolen monkeys was Bored Ape stolen from Steven Galanis on August 7th. The thief tried to cover their tracks using ChangeNow.
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