OpenSea, one of the largest NFT marketplace saw an unprecedented surge since its inception. That said, this rise saw different hiccups on the way that did hinder its growth.
Why always me?
The official OpenSea Discord hacked and posted a link to a phishing site in partnership with YouTube. Scammers hacked the main OpenSea Discord server and started publishing fake collaboration announcements. This was followed by a link to a free version of the “YouTube Genesis Mint Pass.”
It read:
“We have partnered with YouTube to bring their community into the NFT Space, and we’re releasing a mint pass with them that will allow holders to mint their project for free along with getting other insane utilities for being a holder of it.”
The announcement further gave more details as highlighted by Wu blockchain, a famed news agency on 6 May tweet, to highlight this incident.
The official OpenSea Discord was hacked and posted a link to a phishing site in partnership with youtube. On April 1st, a large number of blue-chip NFT DISCORDs were hacked and posted phishing links. pic.twitter.com/uDbNklIgn3
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) May 6, 2022
As per the official announcement, the team confirmed this incident. ‘We are currently investigating a potential vulnerability in our Discord, please do not click on any links in the Discord.’
After several tweets in regards to the incident, PeckShield confirmed that the Discord channel of the NFT marketplace had been exploited.
#PeckShieldAlert #phishing @opensea discord is exploited, youtubenft[.]art is the phishing site. Do *NOT* fall prey to it! https://t.co/RAcRjEfuub pic.twitter.com/rjqMpTnpjW
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) May 6, 2022
Although, there’s no official confirmation whether anyone fell prey to the scam. But, the event did create major concerns- here’s why. The giant NFT marketplace was exploited earlier this year as well. Reports claimed that the exploiter swiped $1.8 million worth of digital art. The company later promised to reimburse all affected users.
Overall, the end of 2021 and early 2022 saw the marketplace breaking record after record in terms of monthly volumes and NFTs sold. But things have been going downhill since then.
Be careful
Sadly, these kinds of attacks persist in the NFT space and some individuals continue to fall for them. The number of funds flowing into NFT projects made it a prime target for hackers. Clearly, they have had a lucrative time of it and so employ these tactics.
