Bill Murray loses almost $200,000 in crypto to the hacker

Bill Murray is the latest celebrity to be targeted by crypto thieves.

Criminals got away with 119.2 ETH (about $185,000) that the actor had raised during his NFT charity auction. The unknown hackers also attempted to steal non-fungible tokens from Murray’s personal collection, which includes two CryptoPunk NFTs, according to Coindesk.

CryptoPunks are among the most sought-after NFTs and can range in price from $77,600 to $1.2 million in ether, according to GoBankingRates.

The “Groundhog Day” star’s virtual wallet security team, NFT consultancy Project Venkman, was able to protect his NFTs. However, they failed to protect the funds raised for charity. It can be difficult to retrieve them since cryptocurrency transactions are usually irreversible.

Murray’s team says it has filed a police report and is working with crypto analysis company Chainalysis to identify the thief.

Although Murray’s charitable funds appear to be gone, another Coinbase user has donated about $187,500 worth of Ether to Chive Charities, the nonprofit Murray raised money for, to replace the money that was stolen.

Murray is far from it the only celebrity targeted for their expensive digital collectibles. In May, for example, actor and producer Seth Green lost four Bored Ape NFTs to a phishing scam, which is when cyberthieves steal users’ personal information by tricking them with fake links.

Like CryptoPunks, Bored Ape NFTs are among the most famous non-fungible tokens and a popular target for theft.

Since the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection launched in June 2021, a total of 143 Bored Ape NFTs worth nearly $13.6 million have been reported stolen in August 2022, according to Immunefi, a Web3 security company.

Green paid nearly $300,000 to recover one of his stolen NFTs, Bored Ape #8398, which he plans to use in an animated series he’s developing, according to Buzzfeed News.

Although crypto scams involving celebrities tend to be the most high-profile, they are certainly not the most common, said Chen Arad, CEO of Solidus Labs, a company that offers services such as trade monitoring, transaction monitoring and threat intelligence to some. of the largest stock exchanges.

“Scammers don’t discriminate and target anyone they think they can get money from, from celebrities to royalty to average people,” he tells CNBC Make It.

However, cybercriminals tend to go after celebrities in particular because “it creates buzz” and attracts more attention, Arad explains. “Celebrities are also perceived as wealthy and often are, which makes them a good target,” he says. “Celebrities handle a high volume of offers/proposals which can mean less time to review and assess their legitimacy.”

While theft and fraud are not unique to the crypto market, there are high rates of illegal activity in the crypto space because “the new technology is still being battle-tested and it takes time to discover and address security holes,” says Arad.

If you are interested in buying into NFTs, there are a number of ways to protect your investment.

OpenSea, the most popular and largest NFT marketplace, recommends implementing various security measures, including the use of two-factor authentication and a physical hardware wallet, in addition to your digital one.