{"id":1907,"date":"2023-07-21T12:09:31","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T04:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=1907"},"modified":"2023-07-21T12:09:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T04:09:31","slug":"doj-indicts-scammer-who-allegedly-made-opensea-copycat-to-steal-450-k-in-nfts-and-crypto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/doj-indicts-scammer-who-allegedly-made-opensea-copycat-to-steal-450-k-in-nfts-and-crypto\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ Indicts Scammer Who Allegedly Made OpenSea Copycat to Steal $450 K. in NFTs and Crypto"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Department of Justice indicted Soufiane Oulahya<\/a>\u00a0on fraud charges related to an scheme to impersonate OpenSea, the world\u2019s largest NFT marketplace, \u201cin order to obtain unauthorized access to cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens,\u201d according to a press release Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">The DOJ alleges that, in September 2021, Oulahya created a copycat website of OpenSea and paid for sponsored advertisements on a popular search engine so that his spoof website would pop up first in searches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">In the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">unsealed indictment<\/a>, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, only referred to one victim, an unnamed individual who lost approximately $450,000 worth of Ethereum and\u00a0NFTs\u00a0after he logged into the fraudulent website \u201calmost immediately\u201d after it was made. The victim input his crypto-wallet details, which held his crypto-assets. After the victim inputted his crypto-wallet identification number, Oulahya was able to access the wallet\u2019s, according to the indictment, which he allegedly transferred to a wallet in his control. He then sold the victim\u2019s NFTs on legitimate NFT marketplaces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">In total, Oulahya allegedly sold 39 of the victim\u2019s NFTs, according to the DOJ, including a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT and a Meebit NFT, both made by Yuga Labs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">Oulahya, a 25-year-old national of the Kingdom of Morocco, is currently being held in his home country on foreign charges. The defendant will be brought to New York and charged with one count of wire fraud, two counts access device fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft. Oulahya will have to forfeit all property obtained in the alleged fraud.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\u201cAs alleged, Soufiane Oulahyane used a common cybercrime technique to steal victim cryptocurrency and NFTs. \u2018Spoofing\u2019 is one of the oldest tricks in the criminal playbook,\u201d Williams said in a press release, \u201cspoofing\u201d referring to making a copycat website. \u201cOulahyane adapted this old tool for use in a new and developing arena \u2013 the crypto space. The charges unsealed today should serve as a reminder that digital assets, such as cryptocurrency and NFTs, are not immune from cyber fraudsters and that my Office is committed to prosecuting these fraudsters both here and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">OpenSea did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">This is not the first time the DOJ has gotten involved in NFT-related crimes. In May, the former OpenSea employee Nate Chastain was convicted\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AtelierAuctionsg\">on charges of insider trading<\/a>, after a DOJ investigation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Justice indicted Soufiane Oulahya\u00a0on fraud charges related to an scheme to impersonate OpenSea, the world\u2019s largest NFT marketplace, \u201cin order to obtain unauthorized access to cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens,\u201d according to a press release Monday. The DOJ alleges that, in September 2021, Oulahya created a copycat website of OpenSea and paid for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,7,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artist","8":"category-auction","9":"category-events","10":"category-gallery","11":"category-latest-news"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>DOJ Indicts Scammer Who Allegedly Made OpenSea Copycat to Steal $450 K. in NFTs and Crypto - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Department of Justice indicted Soufiane Oulahya\u00a0on fraud charges related to an scheme to impersonate OpenSea, the world\u2019s largest NFT marketplace, \u201cin order to obtain unauthorized access to cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens,\u201d according to a press release Monday.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/doj-indicts-scammer-who-allegedly-made-opensea-copycat-to-steal-450-k-in-nfts-and-crypto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DOJ Indicts Scammer Who Allegedly Made OpenSea Copycat to Steal $450 K. in NFTs and Crypto - Investable Art Auctioneer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Department of Justice indicted Soufiane Oulahya\u00a0on fraud charges related to an scheme to impersonate OpenSea, the world\u2019s largest NFT marketplace, \u201cin order to obtain unauthorized access to cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens,\u201d according to a press release Monday.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/doj-indicts-scammer-who-allegedly-made-opensea-copycat-to-steal-450-k-in-nfts-and-crypto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Investable Art Auctioneer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-21T04:09:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/DOJ-Indicts-NFT-Scammer-Who-Made-OpenSea-Copycat-\u2013-ARTnews.com_-www.artnews.com_.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1021\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"805\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chloe Nicholls\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chloe Nicholls\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/doj-indicts-scammer-who-allegedly-made-opensea-copycat-to-steal-450-k-in-nfts-and-crypto\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/doj-indicts-scammer-who-allegedly-made-opensea-copycat-to-steal-450-k-in-nfts-and-crypto\/\",\"name\":\"DOJ Indicts Scammer Who Allegedly Made OpenSea Copycat to Steal $450 K. in NFTs and Crypto - 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