The instagram account belonging to the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection was hacked, BAYC announced on Twitter on Monday (Apr 25). Hackers made away with about US$3 million (S$4.1 million) worth of crypto.
The instagram account was protected with a two-factor authentication, but hackers were able to hack the account still, BAYC said. Once in, they uploaded a post with a link to a cloned version of BAYC’s official website and offered free crypto tokens.
“There is no mint going on today. It looks like BAYC Instagram was hacked. Do not mint anything, click links, or link your wallet to anything,” BAYC said.
People who tried to claim the free tokens by authenticating and connecting their digital wallets had their non-fungible tokens (NFT) and crypto assets transferred out.
A total of four Bored Apes, six Mutant Apes, and three Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs were lost, although more NFTs may have been stolen according to OpenSea transfer records. The average price of a popular and highly sought after Bored Ape is more than US$430,000 (S$589,721), according to DappRadar.
“Yuga Labs and Instagram are currently investigating how the hacker was able to gain access to the account. We’re still investigating,” BAYC owners Yuga Labs said in a statement.
It is likely that the hackers gained access to the Instagram account by tricking an administrator through social engineering, which uses psychological manipulation to trick users into making security mistakes or giving away sensitive information.
Featured Image Credit: Rolling Stones, Yuga Labs
