Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are always exposed to all sorts of scams, and one of the most common is when a virtual asset developer simply disappears with their investors’ money. Unfortunately, non-fungible tokens (NFT) are not exempt from this fraud variant, as evidenced by a project called Evolved Apes.
Its developers claimed that Evolved Apes was a collection of 10,000 unique NFT related to a supposed game in which “apes would fight to survive but only one would win”. So far there are no known advances of this game. The profile of this project is still active and verified in the NFT OpenSea market.
Just a week later, the project’s developer disappeared along with his official Twitter account and the Evolved Apes website. A blockchain analysis shows that 798 ETH (nearly $3 million USD) was diverted from the project’s funds, which were supposed to be invested for game development, marketing campaigns and other expenses.
Somewhat surprisingly, some investors claim to have noticed some red flags, though few withdrew their investment before Evil Ape, the project’s developer, disappeared. Some mention that the mistakes made by the project leaders were attributed to lack of experience, so they never doubted Evil Ape.
Another indication of malicious activity occurred when, after a social media contest, the winners did not receive any prizes or were contacted by the project’s developers. Subsequently, one of the investors of Evolved Apes began his own investigation into it, discovering some bad news about Evil Ape and its cryptocurrency wallet.
The investor mentions that Evil Ape simply got rid of the project, taking with it the wallet with all the virtual assets that would be used to finance the project, leaving the rest of the developers without resources and with a pending project.
Despite the bad news, the remaining members of Evolved Apes plan to continue with the project. One of the developers announced the release of Fight Back Apes, which will start from the point where Evolved Apes stopped; in addition, owners of Evolved Apes NFTs will automatically be eligible to receive a Fight Back Apes token.
To learn more about information security risks, malware variants, vulnerabilities and information technologies, feel free to access the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) websites.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
