NFT Investor 'Pranksy' Buys A Fake Banksy Collectible For $300K On Official Website

What Happened: An anonymous NFT investor was duped into paying close to $300,000 in Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) for a fake Banksy NFT.

Ironically, the NFT investor who fell victim to the fake auction goes by the pseudonym “Pranksy.”

It seems to be hosted on https://t.co/J8U3TmR3gE? So could be genuine, one to watch over the next 3 days

— Pranksy 📦 (@pranksy) August 31, 2021

Pranksy first noticed the Banksy NFT on the OpenSea marketplace but later became convinced that it was a legitimate offering after discovering that the artist’s official website itself was hosting it.

They then proceeded to place a bid of 87 ETH, worth $304,000 at the time, which the perpetrators happily accepted.

However, they soon realized that the listing was actually fraudulent when the link to the OpenSea auction was removed from Banksy’s website.

The artist’s team later confirmed the same to BBC, saying that "any Banksy NFT auctions are not affiliated with the artist in any shape or form."

Adding to the bizarre series of events was the hacker himself returning 97.69 ETH to Pranksy.

“The refund was totally unexpected, I think the press coverage of the hack plus the fact that I had found the hacker and followed him on Twitter may have pushed him into a refund,” said Pranksy to BBC.

"I feel very lucky when a lot of others in a similar situation with less reach would not have had the same outcome."

Ultimately, decentralized marketplace OpenSea made 2.5% from Pransky’s bid. The platform has been consistently topping the leader board in terms of gas consumption on Ethereum in recent weeks.

As of last week, the platform’s weekly NFT sales exceed a record $1 billion.

Price Action: At press time, Ethereum was trading at $3,569, gaining 5.35% over the past 24-hours.

Photo: Eric Ward on Unsplash