A fraudster promoted a fake NFT of the famous Banksy on the artist’s official website and then auctioned it for $338 000 in Ethereum (ETH) on OpenSea. The scammer ended up returning the money. but why ?
Another Banksy stunt?
Early yesterday morning, the official website ofBanksy is elusive He promoted the sale of a work of art in NFT, which was soon put up for auction 100 Ethereumor approximately $338,000 at the time of sale.
The artwork appears to be inspired by Kryptoponics, making creativity the potential synthesis between street art of the famous and elusive street artist, and the biggest art trend of the moment in terms of digital art. Unfortunately for its buyers, ‘Great redistribution of the climate change catastrophe’ It was soon revealed that it was not the work of artist Banksy. The information was confirmed by Pest Control, which manages the authentication of the artist’s work.
“It all happened very quickly.”explains the NFT buyer named a joke – He is also a famous figure in the underground art world – , who bought what turned out to be a fake Banksy NFT.
“My offer of 100 ETH has been accepted for a potential first NFT from Banksy at Opensea. The link has been removed directly from their website, so it could be a very complicated scam, I think that’s the case, only time will tell!”
According to decrypt.co, a user called under an alias Josepho They contacted Pranksy earlier on Tuesday, August 31 on the Discord messaging app to notify them of the auction, according to a Pranksy screen shared by Decrypt:
Yosefo shared a link to Banky’s official website, which included the artwork and auction link on the NFT OpenSea Marketplace. Pranksy quickly placed a bid of 100 ETH, which abruptly ended the auction. It was my first concern when the offer was accepted [si rapidement] »Branki said.
An hour and a half after the auction ended, the NFT promo on Banksy’s website was removed, making Pranksy even more suspicious and confirming a very large scam.
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100 ETH lost. Found 97.69 ETH!
In the end, after this strange chain of events, the crook is back 97.69ETH To Pranksy just over eight hours after I purchased it. “No idea why [il a retourné les fonds] »Pranksy told decrypt.co. “I think I found it and it was reported to him.”
It should be noted that the NFT acts as a receipt of ownership of digital items, whether they are photos, videos, or music files. And while NFT scams are common (NFTs are sold without a Certificate of Authenticity or simply copies without ownership of rights), An elaborate NFT trick of this magnitude is far from common.
“It is possible that the infrastructure hosting the website was compromised, or it may have been an internal function…”
Tom Robinson, co-founder of blockchain forensics firm Elliptic
In February, an artist under the username pest supply NFTs created in Banksy’s signature graffiti stencil style are sold out in total 447 ETH ($900,000) In the NFT OpenSea and Rarible markets. Although many initially speculated that the pest supply could be Banksy himself, The NFT seller has not explicitly claimed to be Banksy.
This adventure could have ended very badly for the fake NFT buyer. In the end, the mysterious fraudster with a big heart almost completely compensated the investor. A real Banksy publicity stunt or a true/false scam, the mystery remains. Pranksy has ended his thread of tweets with “What an extraordinary day. » Another story of NFT with payment giant VISA predicting a bright future for them.
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