Coffeezilla tricked Dillon Danis into a fake NFT project
The Russian doll of NFT scams. Art by Fortune
NFTs – or non-fungible tokens for the uninitiated – can often resemble a Russian doll of fraud.
Consider the wild price swings of NFTs and the fly-by-night nature of many “drops”. Then factor in the external role played by half-witted celebrities and paid “influencers”, as well as the role of outright scammers trying to trick people into clicking on NFT-related phishing links – and you have, well, something of a scam within a scam .
The sometimes absurd economic model of NFTs was unveiled in a sting operation today by Coffeezilla, an “internet detective” who has gained digital celebrity (ie 500,000 followers on Twitter and 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube) by revealing the worst corners of the crypto universe.
In his latest operation, he allegedly tricked mixed martial artist Dillon Danis into promoting a fake NFT project on his Twitter page. All Coffeezilla (aka Stephen Findeisen) had to do was pay Danis $1,000 to post the project. Danis, of course, did not disclose that he was paid in his Twitter post — a provision that the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission occasionally enforce.
The knockout blow to the fighter, as Findeisen gleefully pointed out, was the name of the fake NFT project, SourzNFT Candies are Moundbound. Spelled out:
FRAUD
The fake NFT link directs users to a website that says “Have you been scammed by Dillon Danis?”
The site includes receipts for various projects that Danis has promoted over the years, apparently for a fee, while leaving his followers to hold the proverbial bag, from other NFTs to low-cap tokens. To add insult to injury, Findeisen includes graphs to illustrate how many of the Danis-backed projects are worth right after he tweets about them.
Presumably Danis had an exit ramp and payment upfront for many of these ventures, though his willingness to shill a project for $1,000 either means his life as an MMA fighter wasn’t cutting it, or he needs a new social media team.
According to MMA-focused website Sherdog, Danis — who apparently goes by “El Jefe” — has just two official fights under his belt, with the last coming in 2019.
Danis did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune. Findeisen said he would speak after the video reveal of the sting operation.
In a feat of dizzying irony, Danis previously called out another notorious figure in the NFT and the adjacent space, Logan Paul, for a questionable project that Coffeezilla had also exposed.
“Damn logan paul is a scumbag who feels bad for everyone he scammed,” Danis tweeted in December.
Despite his frequent posting, Danis left his fake NFT tweet up for at least 20 minutes on Friday afternoon. It has since been deleted.
