TL;DR

• Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted a guy accused of stealing $450k worth of crypto and ​NFTs​.

• Apparently, after creating a lookalike website of the marketplace, Soufiane Oulahyane used it to lure at least one person to hand over the seed phrase to their digital wallet.

• While the OpenSea replica platform is no longer available, stories like these are a stark reminder to always triple check the legitimacy of services in the crypto space - especially if you're asked to give up your seed phrase.

Full Story

We've written about a few crypto scams in our time...

'​Pig Butchering​,' '​The Exit Scam​,' and more recently, the '​Trezor App Scam​,' to which we received the following feedback:

Scams be gettin crazzy, indeed!

We're back with another - and this one feels extra brazen.

Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted a guy accused of stealing $450k worth of crypto and ​NFTs​.

How?

By creating a full on website that was almost an exact replica of OpenSea.

Apparently, after creating a lookalike website of the marketplace, Soufiane Oulahyane used it to lure at least one person to hand over the seed phrase to their digital wallet.

Once Oulahyane had access to that, he simply transferred the crypto and NFTs out of the wallet, then sold the NFTs on the real OpenSea (allegedly).

(Including a Bored Ape worth ~$92,000).

The nerve!

All of this has amounted to Oulahyane being charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, the use of an unauthorized access device for the alleged crimes and aggravated identity theft, (all having occurred in September 2021).

While the OpenSea replica platform is no longer available, stories like these are a stark reminder to always triple check the legitimacy of services in the crypto space - especially if you're asked to give up your seed phrase.

A little rule to live by: If it don't look right, it probably ain't!