Actor and producer Seth Green fell victim to a phishing scam earlier this month, causing him to lose ownership of four of his NFTs. One of the NFTs was Bored Ape Yacht Club #8398, an IP that was slated to star in a series Green was developing.
Green premiered the trailer of the series, which is called White Horse Tavern, at the VeeCon NFT Convention in Minneapolis last weekend, saying that he “spent the last several months developing and exploiting the IP to make it into the star of this show,” only to have its star “literally kidnapped” just a few days before his world debut.
.@SethGreen new trailer for his new show, keep your eyes peeled👀@BoredApeYC @GutterCatGang @veefriends pic.twitter.com/ZzYN87HYWA
— FFVV1211.eth (@FFVV1211) May 21, 2022
The NFTs were stolen from his digital wallet after clicking on a phishing link that led to an NFT minting platform, causing the NFT characters, as well as the rights to the commercial use of their IP, to go back on the digital market. An anonymous NFT collector with the handle DarkWing84 then reportedly bought #8398 for US$200,000.
The actor, on a Tweet that shared Buzzfeed’s article on the matter, called out to the stolen NFT’s current owner, saying that he’d rather get in touch and make a deal than handle the matter in court.
Looking forward to precedent setting debates on IP ownership & exploitation, having spent 18 years studying copyright & the industry laws. I’d ather meet @DarkWing84 to make a deal, vs in court. We can prove the promise of ape community https://t.co/U1GpYK2X7d
— Seth Green (@SethGreen) May 24, 2022
As of Wednesday, Green confirmed that they have connected, but hasn’t shared any further details.
We have connected- thank you for the help 💜
— Seth Green (@SethGreen) May 25, 2022
This incident was not the only high-profile NFT robbery this month. Earlier this week, scammers hacked into digital artist Beeple’s Twitter account and successfully took US$438K worth of tokens and cryptocurrency from his followers. The hackers impersonated the artist and launched a fake NFT raffle featuring Beeple’s real collaboration with Louis Vuitton.
Information for this briefing was found via Buzzfeed, Twitter and the sources mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.