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Gallery owner Todd Kramer loses $ 2.2million from NFT in scam

gerard van weyenbergh

Updated: Jan 14, 2022


The merchant had his virtual wallet hacked and 15 tokens from the famous "Bored Ape Yacht Club" series stolen.

It's a heist of a new kind. On December 30, in a series of tweets, New York gallery owner Todd Kramer of the Ross + Kramer gallery launched a desperate appeal for help to recover the 15 non-fungible or NFT tokens that had just been stolen from him. These 15 NFTs, with a total value of $ 2.2 million (€ 1.9 million), corresponding to works belonging to the series "Bored Ape Yacht Club" and "Mutant Ape Yacht Club ", funny images monkeys created to serve as tickets to an online social club. Virtual wallet: "I was hacked. All my monkeys gone".

The gallery owner explains that he clicked on a malicious link in an official-looking message that hid a scam. This practice of "phishing," a classic of online pirating, has already claimed several victims among NFT collectors in recent months but never yet for such a sum. Like many, Todd Kramer used a "hot wallet", a fully virtual wallet constantly connected to the Internet. "I learned my lesson," he added. I will now use a "hard wallet", a physical wallet similar to an external hard drive on which you can store your NFTs more securely.

The thief immediately sold several of the 15 ill-gotten tokens before the NFT OpenSea exchange platform intervened to freeze the trade. Following his tweets that went viral, the gallery owner managed to recover several of his tokens with the help of some OpenSea buyers and a few skilled internet users. Faced with the avalanche of mockery and criticism, he resolved to withdraw his messages: some criticized him for his lack of precaution, others criticized the intervention of OpenSea in what they consider to be a decentralized market without regulatory authority.

"Episodes like this reveal an important fault line in the cryptocurrency community," comments John Sharples, intellectual property lawyer, and NFT specialist. Some say that the opportunity for self-management calls for the responsibility of self-learning, and those who make mistakes should learn the lessons for themselves. Others say it shows a need for more regulation e / or better warning systems and user interfaces".

art expert vwart.com
One of the apes from the Yuga Labs piece ‘101 Bored Ape Yacht Club.’ ©Sotheby's

Proof of magnitude that NFTs are taking in the art market, the 10,000 pieces in the "Bored Ape Yacht Club" series on January 4 crossed the symbolic billion dollar mark (890 million euros). ) of sales. These images of monkeys have become a real Internet phenomenon after many celebrities have purchased them. Among the first, Eminem had bought Bored Ape # 9055, a monkey adorned with gold, for 462,000 dollars (410,000 euros).

This January 6, it is the deleted tweet of Todd Kramer who himself became an NFT. It resurfaced on OpenSea, sold by a user called "CarbonPaper" for 0.05 Ethereum (a virtual currency) or 150 euros. The auctions are open.

see in Le Journal des Arts, article by Barthelemy Glama


2 hours video : Deep Dive in the art world : James Beschara interview of Kramer. Understanding the art world of today

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Unknown member
Feb 20, 2022

I remember when I started NFT a year ago and I was very new to this Alpha Kong group on discord. So I had issues with my verification and I complained about it, I received a message from someone and he directed me to connect my wallet to a link, I lost my NFTs and ETH immediately I connected, I was so gullible. That was all my savings I invested and so I couldn't let go, I decided to make a research online on how I can recover my NFTs and ETH, and I came across this website "hacksandrecovery dot net" after many searches. They seemed legit and real and so I sent their admin a message and explained the situation. Luckily…


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