DOJ Exposes Mind-Blowing OpenSea Spoofing Scam

• The US Justice Department has exposed a 25-year-old man for stealing $450,000 from users by cloning the OpenSea marketplace.

• If found guilty of fraud, Soufiane Oulahyane could be sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

OpenSea, one of the most popular Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) marketplaces, has been cloned to steal hundreds of thousands from users. According to reports, a 25-year-old Moroccan man called Soufiane Oulahyane has been charged with designing this scheme to deceive potential visitors of the NFT marketplace.

Oulahyane cloned the OpenSea website and then paid for sponsored links on a search engine to get people to the login page of this fraudulent platform. Users who fell for this scheme to enter their seed phrases gave Oulahyane access to their crypto accounts.

The suspect ended up selling about 39 Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). Investigation disclosed that a “Bored Ape caricature and a robot dog adorned with a missile battery on its head” were part of the items sold. 

DOJ Explains the Technique Used by Oulahyane

According to the Department of Justice, the technique used by Oulahyane is called Spoofing. This involved creating replicas to deceive unsuspecting users. It exists as one of the oldest tricks used by criminals. Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams highlighted how this was done. 

Bloomberg reported that the man used the cloned site to embezzle about $450 million in NFTs and cryptos. The victim in the Bored Ape theft case reportedly made a payment of 9.88 9.88 ETH ($18,700) in a bid to purchase the Bored Ape NFT.

The robot dog NFT was also purchased for 1.789 Ether ($3400). Multiple charges including “wire fraud, unauthorized access device usage, aggravated identity theft, and the use of an access device to loot a minimum of $1,000” have been leveled against Oulahyane. He, therefore, faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years if found guilty of the fraud charges. 

Earlier Arrest of OpenSea Former Employee

This is not the first time OpenSea has been at the center of a criminal case. In 2022, a former product manager at OpenSea Nathaniel Chastain was arrested and charged with wire fraud and one count of money laundering. He was said to have committed insider trading in NFTs using confidential information about the asset going to be featured on the marketplace’s homepage. Similarly, each count carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.

This and many other cases explain why regulators have over the years called for regulatory implementation in the crypto space. 

Fintech data analyst Boaz Sobrado believes that regulators do not need their powers extended to fight against such crimes in the crypto ecosystem. According to him, these activities are so common that perpetrators do not find the need to cover their tracks. 

There’s a lot of chat about regulation right now, but what a lot of these bad actors are doing is clearly against the law right now. Regulators don’t need their powers expanded to be able to combat this sort of fraud and misleading statements…This, again, is indicative of the sort of wanton craziness that is going on in the sector right now. While the going is good and everyone feels like they’re rich, it’s not spoken about as much. But as soon as the market turns down, a lot of these people are going to get exposed and a lot of people are going to be angry.

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