Brooklyn, New York. An 85-year-old painter lost his life savings of $135,000 to a fraudulent NFT art marketplace, prompting the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office to dismantle a cryptocurrency scam that was targeting artists around the country, officials said.
An online con artist using LinkedIn to impersonate an art dealer tricked the victim, who lived in Clinton Hill. He was duped into selling his artwork as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on a fake website that imitated an authentic NFT marketplace. The victim was promised $300,000 in bitcoin profits, but in order to access the money, they had to pay increasing fees. He used credit cards, borrowed money, and liquidated his IRA account to pay the con artists because he was so enchanted by the prospect of profits.
According to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, whose Virtual Currency Unit oversaw the case, this swindle took advantage of an artist’s trust and inventiveness, leaving him crushed both financially and emotionally.
When investigators linked the pilfered cryptocurrency to Nigerian accounts, they discovered that the money was promptly exchanged for local currency. The investigation found a network of 40 fraudulent NFT art marketplace websites that targeted artists, many of which were impersonating trustworthy platforms, even though the stolen funds could not be retrieved.
The domains that were seized now lead to a page that warns about NFT frauds and offers guidance on how to avoid becoming a victim of similar schemes. Among the advice are to utilize reliable NFT marketplaces, confirm the legitimacy of art merchants, avoid sharing cryptocurrency wallet seed words, and be cautious of upfront costs.
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