Scams go crazy, indeed!
We’re back with another – and this one feels additional cheeky.
Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged a man accused of stealing $450,000 worth of crypto and NFTs.
How?
By creating a full website that was almost an exact replica of OpenSea.
Apparently, after creating a marketplace lookalike website, Soufiane Oulahyane used it to lure at least one person into handing over the seed phrase to their digital wallet.
Once Oulahyane had access to that, he then simply extracted the crypto and NFTs from the wallet sold the NFTs on the real OpenSea (allegedly).
(Including a bored monkey worth ~$92,000).
The nerve!
All this has resulted in Oulahyane being charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, use of an unauthorized access device for the alleged crimes, and aggravated identity theft (all in September 2021).
While the OpenSea replica platform is no longer available, stories like this are a strong reminder to always triple check the legitimacy of services in the crypto space – special when prompted to provide your seed phrase.
A little rule to live by: if it doesn’t look good, it probably isn’t!