An NFT influencer claims to have unintentionally downloaded malware discovered via a Google Ad search result, losing "a life-changing amount" of their net worth in nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrency.
On January 14, a Twitter user going by the handle "NFT God" issued a series of tweets detailing how his "entire digital livelihood" was under attack, Coin Telegraph reports.
The Malware Compromised The NFT Influencer's Crypto Wallet And Other Online Accounts
NFT God, a well-known NFT influencer on Twitter, had his entire digital career destroyed after clicking a phishing ad link on Google.
NFT God, who goes by the name "Alex," claimed to have downloaded the open-source video streaming program OBS via Google's search engine.
However, he chose to click on the sponsored advertisement for what he believed to be the same thing rather than the official website.
After that, a series of phishing tweets were sent out by attackers on two Twitter accounts that Alex manages, Be In Crypto details.
It was not until hours later that he learned malware had also been downloaded from the sponsored advertisement along with the software he needed.
His predicament quickly became worse when he discovered that the owner's address of his Bored Ape NFT had been modified on OpenSea.
Additionally, before transmitting the majority of the ETH to FixedFloat, a decentralized exchange (DEX), the attacker moved it via many wallets and exchanged it for unidentified coins.
The following day, hackers gained access to his Substack account and targeted his 16,000 subscribers with phishing emails.
Alex discovered that the hackers also had access to his Gmail, Discord, and Substack accounts as well, Crypto Slate writes.
According to reports, the influencer had lost NFTs, yet NFT God withheld the USD worth of his possessions.
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NFT God Was Not The First One Who Experienced Such Incident
The crucial error leading to the hack, according to Alex, was setting up his hardware wallet as a hot wallet by entering its seed phrase in a way that no longer kept it cold or offline.
Alex put off buying another Ledger cold wallet because he hadn't bought any additional NFTs in months and did not have any immediate intentions to do so.
Due to this oversight, the virus attack on Alex's workstation gave the hackers access to his crypto and NFTs.
However, NFT God's experience with cryptocurrency-stealing malware in Google Ads is regrettably not the first of its kind.
An information-stealing malware named "Rhadamanthys Stealer" was spreading through Google Ads on incredibly attractive phishing websites, according to a January 12 investigation by Cyble.
It can also be remembered that Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, CEO of Binance, stated that Google search results were boosting cryptocurrency fraud and scam websites in October.
While Google has not provided any comment about the issue, it stated in its help site that the company actively collaborates with dependable partners and advertisers to help avoid malware in advertising.
It also explains how it frequently scans Google Ads using both proprietary technologies and malware detection techniques.
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