Over $765K worth of NFTs stolen after SIM swap attack on GutterCatGang

by | Jul 8, 2023 | News

The bad actors utilized a fake GutterCatGang airdrop scam to drain people’s wallets, with at least $700,000 worth of NFTs being stolen from a single address.

More than $765,000 worth of nonfungible tokens has been stolen as part of a reported SIM swap attack on the GutterCatGang NFT project.

The security breach was highlighted by several NFT community members at around 8 pm UTC on July 7, with GutterCatGang co-founder @GutterMitch tweeting out a warning that: “Our Twitter has been compromised please do not interact with any links.”

Alongside the official GutterCatGang account, co-founder @gutterric was also hacked.

The hacker, or hackers used the accounts to share links to fake “limited edition” GutterCatGang NFT sneaker airdrops that essentially drained people’s hot wallets when they clicked on them.

In an effort to make the fictitious links look more legitimate, the tweets included recent GutterCatGang branding and imagery from the project’s phygital sneaker drop in partnership with Puma and NBA/Charlotte Hornets star LaMelo Ball.

Responding to Gutter Mitch’s thread, prominent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT asserted that the team was hacked via a  SIM swap attack, as he questioned the team’s cyber security practices.

“Your team better look at a compensation plan for victims as it is gross negligence to have used SMS 2FA on your socials after all of the recent SIM swaps,” ZachXBT said.

Related: $794K SIM swap hacker PlugwalkJoe sentenced to 5 years in prison

In a separate thread, ZachXBT highlighted two victims of the attack, with one losing a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT worth $65,913 at current floor prices, and another losing a whopping $700,000 worth of NFTs from a host of blue chip collections.

Providing an update on the matter, GutterCatGang co-founder @gutterdan_ stated: “We are working with Twitter to regain access to the compromised Gutter-affiliated Twitter accounts.”

“We deeply sympathize with all those impacted and want to assure you that we are taking this matter very seriously and are working with law enforcement to investigate the hack and security breach,” he wrote.

At the time of writing, it appears that the accounts are still compromised.

GutterCatGang was launched in mid-2021 and consists of 3000 unique NFT cartoon cat avatars. The current floor price sits at 0.5 Ether (ETH), up almost 615% from the initial cost to mint, according to NFT Price Floor.

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