Bored Ape Yacht Club Instagram Hack Leads to $2.8M Theft
Someone hacked the official Instagram account for Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), the non-fungible token (NFT) collection that appears to be equally popular with crypto bros and the Hollywood elite, and made off with 91 NFTs valued at approximately $2.8 million.
The Block reports that whoever hacked the official BAYC account on Instagram posted a fake announcement telling followers they needed to connect their MetaMask wallet to claim a so-called airdrop related to "a metaverse game that will contain virtual land."
Translated from Web 3.0: Someone used Instagram to convince people who like a collection of blockchain-tracked JPEGs they needed to connect their cryptocurrency wallets to the hacker's wallet so they'd be eligible to receive the rights to fake land in a game that hasn't launched.
BAYC confirmed the incident on Twitter:
"At the time of the hack, two-factor authentication was enabled and security surrounding the IG account followed best practices," BAYC said in a follow-up tweet. "We’ve regained control of the account, and are investigating how the hacker gained access with IG’s team."
The group has advised its followers that it "will also NEVER announce mints on the BAYC or Otherside Instagram accounts first, ever," and that folks should only trust announcements made via its official Twitter accounts or the Discord server devoted to its projects.
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