OpenSea sohrobf Fake Support Scam

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OpenSea

OpenSea is one of the largest markets for NFTs globally. One of the users with 11 NFTs was tricked by an opportunistic team of scammers who messaged him exactly at the same time he reached out for help to staff in the public Discord. The scammers looked nearly identical to the legitimate support staff. After a lengthy discussion where it appeared they were trying to resolve the problem and unsuccessful, they asked if he could share his screen so they could help him, claiming a recent update to MetaMask was causing trouble. They instructed him to view a Sync With Mobile screen on MetaMask, which displays a QR code containing the private key to his wallet. By using a screen grab, the scammers were able to transfer the NFTs, which were immediately resold. OpenSea froze some of the NFTs and MetaMask temporarily disabled the mobile QR code sync feature. It's unclear how much was recovered in this case.

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

About OpenSea

"The world’s first and largest digital marketplace for crypto collectibles and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Buy, sell, and discover exclusive digital items." "Discover, collect, and sell extraordinary NFTs. OpenSea is the world's first and largest NFT marketplace."

"As the first and largest marketplace for Non-Fungible Tokens and Semi-Fungible Tokens, OpenSea provides a first-in-class developer platform consisting of an API, SDK, and developer tutorials. Feel free to browse around and get acclimated with developing smart contracts and interacting with NFT data."

"Fascinated by the [CryptoKitties] movement that was forming, Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah joined early adopter communities in Discord and started talking to users. With the OpenSea beta launch in December 2017, the first open marketplace for any non-fungible token on the Ethereum blockchain was born."

"Valued at $13 billion in a recent funding round, OpenSea has become one of the most valuable companies of the NFT boom, providing a simple interface for users to list, browse, and bid on tokens without interacting directly with the blockchain."

"I was scammed / socially manipulated / hacked on @Discord and @OpenSea and lost three @BoredApeYC, four @0n1Force, and three @worldofwomennft totally roughly 250 eth in value by getting tricked into exposing the Metamask QR Code in the Chrome Browser Extension. I’ve never felt" "more dumb, helpless, embarrased or just plain sad in my entire life. I don’t post much on Twitter. But I want to tell my story so it can hopefully stop this from happening to others, although unfortunately I wasn’t the first because @_jeffnicholas_ started the club yesterday."

"Please, please don’t join us. We want this to be an exclusive club of two and hopefully @MetaMask can change this QR Code feature because it’s completely unnecessary and clearly a vulnerability. It all started today when I bought BAKC #648 and when it hit my wallet there was" "an issue where I couldn’t list it on OpenSea. I didn’t think much of it but after a few hours of it still not allowing me to list I went into the BAYC Discord and hit up the Support channel. I posted my issue and a few people responded, including Gargamel and NoSass. Then I got" "a DM from NoSass saying he would help me and I should join a Support Discord server and he sent the link. I didn’t think anything about it since I had just chatted with both of them inside the BAYC Support channel, so why wouldn’t they be DMing me? I had my own channel inside the" "server and there were 4 BAYC team members in there “helping”, including Gargamel and NoSass. That should have been the only clue I needed that something wasn’t right...as if the founders have all the time in the world to fix my OpenSea BAKC issue. I’m a founder, I’ve built" "companies, and having 4 people help 1 user is not a way to get anything accomplished. But this is where the manipulation came in, and they were good at their job. They kept me distracted with questions about why I joined BAYC, what I did, etc. When I mentioned what we’re building" "at Fan Controlled Football they got interested/excited and we just started chopping it up. I was COMPLETELY off my guard because they made me feel comfortable, and honestly I felt like I was being treated like a VIP. This was the Ape Fam experience and what it was all about."

"The founders getting in there and helping out the community no matter how small the issue. We went through a series of things, they were trying to “fix it”, and when nothing else worked they asked me to share my screen so they could see the BAKC and and wallet and maybe help." "When all else failed, they mentioned MetaMask had just put out an update and it had caused some issues. They suggested I resync MetaMask on my mobile with MetaMask Chrome Extension. I had no idea how to do this, so they walked me through the steps, which included going into the" "Advanced Settings controls in the Metamask extension and clicking the Sync with Mobile link. There is a warning after clicking and before putting in a password that says “Proceeding will display a secret QR code that allows access to your accounts. Do not share it with anyone."

"Support staff will never ask your for it.“ But these were the founders of BAYC, and they were talking to me and distracting me and honestly I didn’t even see, read, or notice the warning. Now going back through the process I see it, but I didn’t then. And now looking closely," "Metamask f’ed up. The warning on the next screen, which actually displays the QR Code, says “Make sure nobody else is looking at your screen when you scan this code”. Why in the hell would that message be on the same screen as the actual QR Code AFTER PASSWORD INPUT!?" "Why isn’t that message big and bold and something you have to acknowledge / accept before the code is displayed?? Would it have stopped me? Coin flip. But a jarring red highlighted message that I had to accept before proceeding is probably the way to go."

"I’m at a loss for what to do. Thanks to @natechastain from OpenSea all of the stolen items are frozen, but not before most of them were sold. So now a bunch of good people in this community are holding frozen, stolen NFTs that are actually mine, but that they paid for."

"How in the hell does this get unfucked? And how can we stop it from happening? I didn’t have a hardware wallet (it’s literally being delivered on Thursday) but I’m not an idiot. I know not to expose my keys, don’t trust people, ignore random DMs, etc." "But the freaking BAYC founders messaged me inside the BAYC support channel and then DMed me. Their name was EXACTLY the same as the founders, down to the digits. The Gargamel#1845 that was in the official BAYC Support channel was a fake!" "There are clearly some flaws with Discord, and this has to be top of the list. If I wasn’t an eternal optimist, I would say today was soul crushing. But I’m a big believer in good words, good thoughts, good deeds and the power of positive thinking."

"I’ll get through this. My family will get through this. I’ll come back stronger and better and smarter. But this is a big blow, and my whole body hurts from what happened to me today in the metaverse."

"We've spoken with the MetaMask team and they will be temporarily disabling the mobile QR code sync feature to defend against the phishing attacks that have become more prevalent in recent weeks."

"Metamask disabled the QR code so this won't happen to anyone else. Doesn't do much for me, but I'm glad I was able to stop it from happening to others." "This is swift action and so damn commendable. Thank you @natechastain and @MetaMask! Looks like my horror story and @_jeffnicholas_ similar horror story have already had a positive impact. Let's keep this momentum going. YOUR TURN @discord!!!"

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - OpenSea sohrobf Fake Support Scam

Date	Event	Description
August 25th, 2021 4:33:00 AM MDT	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost has been estimated at $543,000 USD.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

The total amount recovered is unknown.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.