TechFlow news — On December 9, according to Cointelegraph, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office announced it has shut down 40 NFT scam marketplace websites after an 85-year-old artist was defrauded of $135,000.
On December 6, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office stated that someone impersonating an art dealer contacted the victim on LinkedIn and convinced him to mint his artwork on a fake NFT marketplace resembling New York's OpenSea. He was later informed he had made $300,000 in profits—but to withdraw the funds, he had to pay $135,000 in "fees." He raised the money by completely draining his retirement account and using credit card payments and loans.
The office also added that the counterfeit OpenSea website "appears to have been controlled and paid for from Nigeria," and that some of the now-shut-down sites prompted visitors to enter their cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases, "which would allow scammers to fully drain the contents of users' digital wallets."
