Investors lose over $2.8M due to hack of Bored Ape Yacht Club Instagram account

The official Instagram account of the most popular NFT project, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), was hacked on Monday, April 25, 2022. 

The BAYC Twitter account issued a statement concerning the hack, dissuading followers from interacting with any posts on their Instagram. 

Before discovering it had been hacked, the BAYC account shared a link to a scam website that has led to a loss of $2.8 million worth of NFTs from investors who connected their Ethereum wallets.

On the website, unfortunate investors were tricked into that Bored Ape creator, Yuga Labs, was giving out free NFT land in preparation for its upcoming new game on the metaverse, Otherside.

The website tricked investors by telling them they would receive a free airdrop of NFT land from Yuga Labs if they connected their Ethereum wallets. They also sweetened the deal by stating that you didn’t need to own a Bored Ape in order to be eligible for the airdrop.

A lot of individuals fell for the scam as the hacker was able to amass 91 NFTs stolen from connected wallets worth over $2.8 million. 

According to Twitter user and “blockchain sleuth,” @zachxbt, the BAYC Instagram hacker stole 4 BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club), 7 MAYC (Mutant Ape Yacht Club), 3 BAKC (Bored Ape Kernel Club), 1 CloneX, & more ( 91 NFTs in total).

Ethereum block explorer, Etherscan, has already listed the wallet connected to the theft as a Fake Phishing wallet.

Yuga Labs estimated the total value of stolen NFTs at around $3 million. The NFT brand also said that it is actively working to establish contact with affected users and investigate how the hacker was able to gain access to their account in collaboration with Instagram. 

Hacks and scams are very rampant in the crypto and NFT space. Companies have to be responsible for their communications and beef up cybersecurity to protect their users while users have to be careful not to fall victim.