CHINESE STUDENT CLICKS ON A LINK AND LOSES $500,000 IN NFT: BEWARE OF SCAMS!
A Chinese student from Tongji University in Shanghai, named Niq Chen, made himself known in the community by choosing "NFT" as his career when filling out his university application. He had invested his entire savings in these non-fungible tokens, but beware of their volatility and scams!
As a result of a phishing scam, the young academic lost a token worth half of his fortune worth almost $548,000. After clicking on a phishing link, he quickly made a request that his NFT not be sold or bought, however the scammer had already sold it!
What is phishing?
This is an Internet fraud technique aimed at obtaining confidential information (passwords, banking information, etc.) in order to impersonate the victim. A procedure that is becoming less and less rare!
In addition to the fraudulent uses and risks of cybercrime in the blockchain, the use of cryptocurrencies raises issues of state sovereignty. Indeed, crypto-technology is underpinned by a philosophy aimed at evading government controls. Central banks around the world have warned about the risks of crypto-assets for reasons ranging from the volatility of their value to the risks of scams.
Faced with the scale of these abuses, governments are hunting down bad crypto practices. In this respect, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) seized three counterfeit NFT works of art on 15 February 2022 in a £1.4 million fraud case. These seizures will become more regular as the number of infringements increases.
For example, should there be online moderation for NFT sales platforms, as there was for social networks?