According to reports, five people have been charged in France on suspicion of stealing nonfungible tokens (NFTs) worth $2.5 million through phishing scams using information from anonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT.
An October 12 report from the Agence France Presse (AFP) posted by Barron’s stated that the alleged fraudsters reportedly created a website that was disguising itself as a service that animate the static artwork from Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFTs. The phishing website was actually used to steal the victims’ NFTs and credentials.
The five suspects, who are reported to be in their mid-to-late-20s, are accused of carrying out the scam between the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022. They were accused of concealing fraud, participating in a criminal group, and criminal association.
Prosecutors have asked for the pre-trial confinement of two of the accused since they are believed to be the group leaders.
The self-described “on-chain sleuth” ZachXBT’s Twitter investigation led to the discovery of the incident, according to the deputy chief of France’s national cyber unit, Christophe Durand, who spoke to the AFP.
Demands from “the community of owners of the Bored Ape Yacht Club series” who had their tokens stolen have urged ZachXBT into starting an investigation into this matter — said Durand.
ZachXBT tweeted that they were extremely glad to see that the alleged fraudsters are being prosecuted by the French government. The investigator was particularly delighted to learn that their work has received official recognition online given that they are a volunteer-funded independent investigator.
Additionally, ZachXBT provided a link to their initial piece from August 9 that, according to him, served as the catalyst for the investigation.
The use of Tornado Cash by the suspected fraudsters to mix and withdraw the funds was a crucial aspect of the investigation.
ZachXBT has amassed a sizable Twitter following of 303,200 as a result of their work. ZachXBT has published a number of on-chain investigations centered on rug pull, scams, hacks, and pump and dumps.
The online sleuth began looking into the $450,000 Beeple Discord hack at the beginning of this month in an effort to identify those involved. Additionally, ZachXBT found that, on September 29, crypto influencer Lark Davis had allegedly promoted a number of “low cap projects” only to dump on them shortly after.
