Malware from Google Ads Emptied NFT Influencer’s Wallet

An NFT influencer claims to have unintentionally downloaded malicious malware discovered via a Google Ad search result, which led him to lose “a life-changing amount” of their net worth in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrency.

On January 14, the Twitter user going by the name “NFT God” issued a string of tweets detailing how his “entire digital livelihood” had been compromised, including his cryptocurrency wallet and numerous internet accounts.

NFT God or “Alex,” claimed to have downloaded OBS, an open-source video streaming program, via Google’s search engine. However, he chose to click on the sponsored advertisement for what he believed to be the same thing rather than the official website.

Later, after receiving a series of phishing tweets from attackers on two Twitter accounts Alex manages, he noticed malware was downloaded along with the software he sought from the sponsored advertisement.

After receiving a message from a fellow, Alex realized that his cryptocurrency wallet had also been hijacked with his Twitter accounts. The following day, hackers gained access to his Substack account and targeted his 16,000 subscribers with phishing emails.

The majority of the ETH was moved through various wallets before being sent to the decentralized exchange (DEX) FixedFloat, where it was exchanged for unknown cryptocurrencies.

Alex thinks that establishing his hardware wallet as a “hot wallet” by inserting its seed phrase “in a way that no longer kept it cold,” or offline, facilitated the wallet attack and gave the hackers access to his crypto and NFTs. 

He said: 

“I knew I made a critical mistake.”

Increasing Number of NFT Thefts

Meanwhile, according to a Jan. 12 report from cybersecurity company Cyble, “Rhadamanthys Stealer” is a malware that hacks information and spreads via Google Ads on “highly convincing phishing webpage[s].”

The COO of RTFKT, Nikhil Gopalani, has dealt with the recent theft of a non-fungible token (NFT). The businessman admitted on Twitter that a phishing attack cost him a considerable sum of his digital wallet’s contents.