Thieves Stole An Art Dealer's $2.2M Collection of NFT Apes & Twitter Was Not Kind About It
Someone took his internet pictures 🙊
New York-based artist Todd Kramer is definitely not having a great start to 2022 after losing some million-dollar NFT art in an alleged phishing scam.
Kramer says he lost US$2.2 million worth of NFTs, a.k.a. non-fungible tokens that are supposed to be easier to protect thanks to blockchain technology. The artwork only exists on the internet, and someone allegedly broke into Kramer's account and claimed the rights to those images.
The artist took to his Twitter informing people of what happened via a now-deleted tweet which read: "I have been hacked. All my apes gone. This just sold please help me."
In total, he had 15 NFTs stolen from his Ethereum wallet, according to reports by ArtNews.
The stolen digital art included four apes from a collection called the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Much of his art was reportedly sold off before he had the opportunity to investigate what happened and attempt to get them back.
Many people didn't sympathize with the artist's situation. They argued that he had it coming since he used an unregulated and decentralized system for his NFTs, which would be of little use in helping him with his ordeal.
Other people took this as a chance to poke fun at the idea of losing art that only lives on the internet.
Toddkramer when he sees the apes are all gonepic.twitter.com/MbQlADJMSJ— Silly Guylish\ud83c\udf39 (@Silly Guylish\ud83c\udf39) 1640922115
However, some people on Twitter actually tried to help Kramer get his NFTs back, and with the help of the platform OpenSea, they were able to recover some of his stolen apes.
Just helped @toddkramer1 re-unite with two more of his stolen ape. Two members of the #BoredApeYachtClub (who had unwittingly purchased the stolen apes) worked with @j1mmyeth to get them back to their rightful owner. Massive props to everyone involved.— daviseford.eth (@daviseford.eth) 1640963649
Twitter user @daviseford tweeted: "Just helped @toddkramer1 re-unite with two more of his stolen ape. Two members of the #BoredApeYachtClub(who had unwittingly purchased the stolen apes) worked with @j1mmyeth to get them back to their rightful owner. Massive props to everyone involved."
Just wanted to say thank you to @j1mmyeth and @evankeast for your support in arguably the worst night of my life. I still believe #wagmi— toddkramer.eth (@toddkramer.eth) 1640857629
Kramer showed his gratitude for their help via a tweet. The tweet read: Just wanted to say thank you to @j1mmyeth and @evankeast for your support in arguably the worst night of my life. I still believe #wagmi."
Safe to say Kramer's learnt his lesson to use hard wallets and has one takeaway: "Good always defeats evil."