May 9, 2021
By Sharan Kaur Phillora
Scammers hacked the official Discord server of popular NFT marketplace OpenSea on Friday morning, sending a bot message that tricked users into visiting a fake website that resembled YouTube but was really set up to gain access to crypto wallets.
Here’s what we know:
The breach was first publicized on Twitter by “Serpent,” the pseudonymous developer of Sentinel, which is software for detecting Discord hacks aimed at crypto investors.
Screenshots on Twitter indicate that the scammer was promoting a fake NFT mint that claimed to be a collaboration with YouTube. The link led to a webpage with a YouTube logo that security firm PeckShield identified as a phishing website.
An OpenSea spokesperson said in a statement to Fortune that the company has taken action against the scammer or scammers and hasn’t seen any malicious posts since 4:30 a.m. ET. Less than 10 digital wallets were affected, and the NFTs stolen were worth less than 10 Ether, or about $26,903, as of Friday, they added.
“We noticed the malicious links soon after they were posted and took immediate steps to remedy the situation, including removing the malicious bots and accounts. We also alerted our community via our Twitter support channel to not click any links in our Discord,” an OpenSea spokesperson said.
OpenSea’s support Twitter account announced on Friday morning that it was investigating a “potential Discord vulnerability.”
“Do not click links in our Discord,” the account tweeted. “We are continuing to investigate this situation and will share information as we have it.” A similar message was posted by an admin in the OpenSea Discord.
OpenSea told Fortune that it was actively investigating the hack on its Discord and would keep its community updated with new information. “Our preliminary analysis indicates that the attack had limited impact,” an OpenSea spokesperson said.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
About the author
Sharan Kaur Phillora’s thirst for knowledge has led her to study many different subjects, including NFTs and Blockchain technology – two emerging technologies that will change how we interact with each other in the future. When she isn’t exploring a new idea or concept, she enjoys reading literary masterpieces.
