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US prosecutors have charged Soufianz Aulaiah, currently in legal custody in Morocco, with creating a fake OpenSea marketplace in 2021 to steal $450,000 worth of cryptocurrencies and NFTs from a victim in Manhattan.
A release from the United States Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York states that the defendant illegally obtained the victim’s seed phrase by spoofing and used it to steal his collection of digital art.
case details
Aulahya stole four NFTs from the victim’s OpenSea account. These were one each from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Meebit, Bored Ape Kennel Club and Crypto Dad series. In addition, the defendants also stole cryptocurrency from the compromised wallet of the Manhattan victim. The indictment states that the victim paid approximately $448,923 to obtain these digital assets.
“As alleged, Sufiyan Oulahayane used common cybercrime techniques to steal victim cryptocurrencies and NFTs. ‘Spoofing’ is one of the oldest tricks in the criminal game. Aulahayen adapted this old tool for use in a new and developing area – the crypto space, attorney Damian Williams said in the release.
According to the indictment prepared by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Olahayane used a paid advertisement on a popular search engine to lure the victim to a fake OpenSea website.
As soon as the victim entered the seed phrase on the fake website, it was transferred to an email ID controlled by Olahyane, who immediately accessed the former’s wallet and transferred the NFTs and cryptocurrencies to his own. Prosecutors did not name the victim or the search engine where Olahyanne found the ad.
cyber attacks on the rise
Spoofing is one of several social engineering techniques where cyber criminals conduct a malicious attack by luring and convincing potential victims to click on links, reveal passwords, download attachments, etc.
In April 2022, a BYAC owner was Cheated BAYC #1584, MAYC #13168, and MAYC #13169 – worth $570K in one swap deal on the Swap Kiwi platform. The scammers exploited weak verification and anti-spoofing features in its Checkmark to create fake BAYC NFTS. But they were nothing more than Photoshopped JPEGs.
In October 2022, the BNB chain suffered a security breach and millions of dollars of cryptocurrency were compromised. While the freezing, recovery and normalization was still underway, a fresh spoofing attack caused the network to suffer a loss of 60 ETH.
Binance Free $100 (Exclusive): Use this link to register and get $100 free and 10% off fees on Binance Futures for the first month. (terms).
PrimeXBT SPECIAL OFFER: Use this link to register and enter the code CRYPTOPOTATO50 to receive up to $7,000 on your deposit.
US prosecutors have charged Soufianz Aulaiah, currently in legal custody in Morocco, with creating a fake OpenSea marketplace in 2021 to steal $450,000 worth of cryptocurrencies and NFTs from a victim in Manhattan.
A release from the United States Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York states that the defendant illegally obtained the victim’s seed phrase by spoofing and used it to steal his collection of digital art.
case details
Aulahya stole four NFTs from the victim’s OpenSea account. These were one each from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Meebit, Bored Ape Kennel Club and Crypto Dad series. In addition, the defendants also stole cryptocurrency from the compromised wallet of the Manhattan victim. The indictment states that the victim paid approximately $448,923 to obtain these digital assets.
“As alleged, Sufiyan Oulahayane used common cybercrime techniques to steal victim cryptocurrencies and NFTs. ‘Spoofing’ is one of the oldest tricks in the criminal game. Aulahayen adapted this old tool for use in a new and developing area – the crypto space, attorney Damian Williams said in the release.
According to the indictment prepared by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Olahayane used a paid advertisement on a popular search engine to lure the victim to a fake OpenSea website.
As soon as the victim entered the seed phrase on the fake website, it was transferred to an email ID controlled by Olahyane, who immediately accessed the former’s wallet and transferred the NFTs and cryptocurrencies to his own. Prosecutors did not name the victim or the search engine where Olahyanne found the ad.
cyber attacks on the rise
Spoofing is one of several social engineering techniques where cyber criminals conduct a malicious attack by luring and convincing potential victims to click on links, reveal passwords, download attachments, etc.
In April 2022, a BYAC owner was Cheated BAYC #1584, MAYC #13168, and MAYC #13169 – worth $570K in one swap deal on the Swap Kiwi platform. The scammers exploited weak verification and anti-spoofing features in its Checkmark to create fake BAYC NFTS. But they were nothing more than Photoshopped JPEGs.
In October 2022, the BNB chain suffered a security breach and millions of dollars of cryptocurrency were compromised. While the freezing, recovery and normalization was still underway, a fresh spoofing attack caused the network to suffer a loss of 60 ETH.
Binance Free $100 (Exclusive): Use this link to register and get $100 free and 10% off fees on Binance Futures for the first month. (terms).
PrimeXBT SPECIAL OFFER: Use this link to register and enter the code CRYPTOPOTATO50 to receive up to $7,000 on your deposit.
