Hacker takes over Beeple’s Twitter; followers may face massive losses

Beeple’s Twitter account was at the mercy of a hacker for almost five hours on Sunday, May 22. The hacker, who has not been identified yet, posted malicious links, possibly resulting in the loss of over $438,000 worth of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. He posted a teaser about a fake Louis Vuitton x Beeple collaboration, a raffle entry, and a link offering 200 free NFTS.

“Stay safe out there, anything too good to be true IS A FUCKING SCAM,” Beeple tweeted Sunday morning. Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann,toldARTnewsthat it is impossible to know if money was actually lost in the hack. While that may be true, it is safe to assume that thousands of dollars have gone down the drain due to the scam.

Beeple is arguably the most famous digital artist in the world following his record-breaking sale of the NFTEveryday’s: The First 5,000 Daysat Christie’s for $69.3 million last March. With a large following of 673,200 people and a trustworthy reputation, Beeple was a perfect target for this kind of scam, reports ARTnews.

There have been a series of NFT hackings recently according to the magazine. Last month, the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Instagram page was hacked, which resulted in a loss of $3 million worth of assets in a phishing scam. Just last week, comedian Seth Green reported that he had lost several NFTs to a phishing scam.