DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN – BROOKLYN DISTRICT ATTORNEY Eric Gonzalez on Friday announced that his Virtual Currency Unit had disrupted a scam targeting artists throughout the country, including an 85-year-old professional painter from Clinton Hill, whose children reported that their father lost his life’s savings to a fake art dealer. While unable to recover the stolen money, investigators seized over 40 scam art marketplace sites, preventing future victimization.
The victim was contacted via LinkedIn by a purported dealer for a website mimicking the legitimate NFT marketplace OpenSea. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are digital assets that can represent content, such as digital artwork, and can be sold or traded. The scammer said she wanted to convert the victim’s art into NFTs and sell them.
She later told him that he had earned over $300,000 on the site, but needed to pay a fee to access those earnings. He sent over $135,000 in Bitcoin by liquidating his entire IRA account, making payments from his credit card and securing a loan, but was devastated to realize the promised money wasn’t coming. Investigators found the funds had been primarily cashed out for Nigerian currency – foreclosing the ability for recovery, due to jurisdiction. The scam site was also found to be likely based in Nigeria.
The DA shared warning signs and tips for artists, including urging them to verify the authenticity of online dealers before engaging; to only use established NFT marketplaces – and to be alert for scammers posing as them; and to be aware that legitimate NFT sites will never ask for exorbitant fees upfront to sell and will never ask for cryptocurrency wallet seed phrases, which can enable scammers to instantly drain wallets. Phishing websites are often designed to steal credentials and fraudulently gain access to cryptocurrency assets.
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