A shroud of gloom engulfed Actor Bill Murray after a hacker took off with 119.2 ETH or close to $185,000, collected at a charity fundraiser for a non-fungible token ticket offering the winner a chance to grab a beer with the celebrity.
According to on-chain data from Etherscan and Murray’s promotion team, the hackers kept an eye and ear on Murray’s personal wallet throughout the sale. At about 7:00 PM when the sale was completed, hackers withdrew the funds from the wallet before the sale closed.
The auction, organized by The Shack in partnership with Coinbase’s NFT world, was a collectible that is part of the actor Bill Murray’s “Bill Murray 1000” collection seeking to give fans a blockchain experience by dining with the famous actor.
“Only 82 of the 1,000 NFTs in the collection have been issued thus far (only the 1/1 comes with beer utility), and the least expensive edition is advertised on Coinbase’s (COIN) marketplace for 11 ETH, or almost $17,000.” Said Coinbase in a statement.
Hackers transferred funds to Binance-linked addresses
The hackers used fake identities to transfer funds to a wallet address linked to the crypto exchange Binance, and Unionchain.ai until a security team from NFT consultancy Project Venkman marched in to safeguard the actor’s NFTs by mixing the expensive JPEGs like a Damien Hirst NFT, two CryptoPunks, a Pudgy Penguin, a Cool Cat and numerous Flower Girls that were already in the wallet.
It’s reported that the hacker also tried to make off with 800 NFTs from the actor’s collection that were reserved in his personal account, but the security team quickly ran a script to stop the transfer when it was alerted of the fraudulent activity.
Police report filed to catch the thieves
Six JPEG collectors participated in the tendering procedure to dine with the actor, and the process attracted 60 bids. Brant Boersma, a Coinbase user, beat them all, winning a date with the famous actor who will also be in a portrait. It is unclear whether the date will still happen with the theft of the funds, A police report has been filed and Chainalysis is working with law enforcement to track and arrest the culprits.
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