A Fake Banksy NFT was sold for £244k, and the transaction was made via the website of the artists who held the auction and had a lot of bidders to purchase the digital goods. Initially, the auction had low bids, but the hacker tricked one collector and fan of the artist, which upped the bid to 90 percent more than its competitors.
Banksy is a known street graffiti artist who has been popular for his anonymity and awe-inspiring artworks that have been a popular sight in the United Kingdom. Until now, the artist remains anonymous and unknown to the public, with several of his artworks remaining in the physical world, rather than the digital.
Fake Banksy NFT Scam
According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, a hacker initially set up an NFT auction on the Banksy's website, and it duped a lot of people into thinking that it was official because of that. Moreover, the hacker featured a fake NFT, a fake token that was made to resemble that of the artist's work.
Then, it was only a matter of combining one thing to another, and the hacker got a legitimate looking auction, using the name of the artist to entice people into buying. Banksy's now-deleted website with the URL banksy.co.uk/nft.html also fooled people into thinking that it was an official NFT marketplace for the artist.
To date, the street artist have not yet released any NFT to be sold to anyone and remain to have no affiliation with the blockchain-based artwork. Non-fungible tokens are so popular nowadays that people will believe anything is an NFT, even something as plain or simple as an artwork of a rock as an NFT.
NFT Scams
There have been a lot of NFT and cryptocurrency scams as much as there are coin artworks that have been released for the public in recent times. It is important to always verify the source and authenticity of the token before purchasing, as it proves to be a hard thing to take back when making a purchase and getting fake ones.
Threat actors have also arrived in the world of NFT and crypto, wherein they perform confusing tactics that make users give off their wallets or tokens, only to be stolen by these people. Also, like Banksy's name being used, they may parade as a popular personality, where they could sell anything and have users buy it.
Banksy's Popularity
Banksy's popularity in the UK and the world has been widespread, giving the artists a name that has been known to many. His recognition for his different works has gained him everything which he has now, but the artists seem to remain on creating street graffiti arts, rather than digital artworks like NFTs.
The recent NFT scam only shows that anyone with a popular name can be combined with NFTs, and have their popularity sell the token for a high price, without people verifying it. This may only be one case with Banksy, but that does not mean that it would not happen again with other artists or personalities.
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Written by Isaiah Richard
