NFT Influencer's Wallets Drained Using Google Ads-Induced Malware

An NFT influencer claimed a Google Ad concealing malicious software siphoned a "life-changing amount" of their net worth.

NFT_God, the Non-Fungible token (NFT) influencer shared with their 91,000 followers on Twitter that their "entire digital livelihood was violated" noting that "every account connected" to them, "both personally and professionally was hacked and used to hurt others."

The Twitter user, who is also known by the name Alex, detailed what happened and revealed that they lost a lot due to an accidental download of malicious software apparently found in a Google Ad search result.

According to the NFT influencer, they used Google search to download open broadcaster software (OBS), an open-source video streaming software that allows users to stream directly from their devices.

However, instead of clicking the link from the official website, they clicked the sponsored ads, which they thought was the same thing.

The malicious actors got into the NFT influencer's accounts for hours and even shared phishing tweets in the Twitter accounts that the influencer operates.

The situation got a lot worse when they realized that the owner address of the MAYC was changed on OpenSea, an NFT trading platform.

After an acquaintance sent a message to Alex, they realized that their crypto wallet was compromised.

It was only then that they realized all of their crypto and NFTs had been stolen from him.

The cybercriminals then attacked the influencer's Substack account and launched a phishing email to their 16,000 subscribers.

Following the attack, the NFT influencer lost at least 19 ETH worth around $27,000 at the time, a Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFT with a price floor of 16 ETh or around $25,000 and several other NFT collections from the influencer's wallet.

The cybercriminals moved most of Alex's ETH using several wallets before sending it to FixedFloat, a decentralized exchange, where the trail got cold.

Apart from inadvertently downloading the link from sponsored ads, the NFT influencer said they made a huge blunder when they set up their Ledger account, a hardware wallet that allows offline crypto transactions.

Despite their understanding and capability when it comes to highly technical matters, the NFT influencer said they made a mistake by entering their seed phrase in a way that "no longer kept it cold."

According to the influencer, "not buying a new cold wallet immediately was a deadly mistake. But even with a cold wallet, my entire digital world would still be destroyed. Digital security isn't just buying a cold wallet. It's also being careful with EVERYTHING you do on the internet. Everything."