Although most of us understand that non-expendable testimonials are one a tremendous scam, it is not every day that is seen completely art caps happening in the world of digital NFTs. But we learned what it might look like on Tuesday when an anonymous investor spent $ 340,000 in an NFT from Banksy’s website, only to find out it was a fake.
The fake piece of digital art appeared on Banksy official site Tuesday morning under the URL already deleted “banksy.co.uk/nft.htmlThe only thing on the page was a JPEG file that Banksy presumably assumed $ 1 billion CryptoPunk hype train, with the usual social commentary of the artist, this time on the horrible carbon footprint that NFT art leaves behind. The title, in case you were wondering, was “Great Redistribution of the Climate Change Disaster.”
An image of this disaster was listed today on the market Opensea NFT for a passing artist “gaakmann“, Which matches the pseudonym Banksy had used in the past. In other words, it seemed legitimate, or so Anyway, it’s as legal as an NFT artwork can be, so people started bidding. The winner of the auctioned work ended up being an anonymous crypto art collector called “Pranksy“, Who spent a whopping 100 ETH (just over $ 340,000 USD) on the work, according to blockchain records.
That’s when things started to get weird. The Banksy website page was quietly removed, without saying how that page appeared on the site. Speaking with the BBC as for the incident, the anonymous buyer said he suspected Banksy’s site was being hacked and that there was actually some random scammer who created the seemingly legitimate website.
In a statement sent to the BBC, Banksy’s team told the media that “any auction of Banksy NFT is not affiliated with the artist in any form or form”. We also got our hands on it Pest control, the agency that acts as Banksy’s public spokesperson for the press, on any updates.
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At least so far, though, the weird NFT scam seems to have a happy ending. Gaakman seems to have done it reimbursed the 100 ETH back to Pranksy’s account a few hours after the auction of his counterfeit piece Closed. The buyer confirmed on the motherboard who plans to keep the artwork, at least for now.