Hackers steal $438,000 in scam from artist NFT Beeple’s Twitter account

• Hackers have targeted artist NFT Beeple’s Twitter account to lure followers into a phishing scam.
• A MetaMask security analyst alerted subscribers to the attack on Sunday.
• The scam took advantage of Beeple’s previous work with luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton.

Beeple, the artist who made history by selling one of his non-fungible tokens for $69 million, was targeted on Twitter by hackers who took more than $400,000 from some of his followers.

Beeple said in a Sunday post on Twitter he had regained control of his account, confirming the hack in a message to his 673,000 followers.

“Stay safe out there, anything too good to be true IS A FUCKING SCAM,” wrote Beeple, who caught the attention of the crypto world last year when his ‘Everydays: The First 500 Days’ NFT sold for $69.3 millionn at an auction organized by Christie’s.

The post from Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, came hours after security analyst Harry Denley of the MetaMask cryptocurrency wallet alerted Beeple subscribers to the attack. Denley under his harry.eth account on Twitter said Beeple’s account was compromised “for posting a

Phishing

website to steal funds.”

The hackers took advantage of Beeple’s collaboration with Louis Vuitton last year in which the artist designed collectible NFTs for a game commemorating the luxury fashion house’s 200th anniversary.

The hackers placed links in Beeple’s account that looked like a raffle linked to a Beeple-Vuitton collection. But if clicked, the links would siphon money from users’ crypto wallets.

The “bad actors” through two scams captured $438,000 in about five hours from followers of Beeple’s account, Denley wrote.

“And by the way,” Beeple wrote, “there will never be a SURPRISE MINT that I will mention once in the same place from 6 a.m. Sunday morning.”