crypto.news
Opensea is taking steps to protect buyers from unintentionally buying unwanted items by implementing new measures.
OpenSea has implemented a new capability in SeaPort 1.4 to validate an item’s current status before accepting an offer. These measures have been specifically designed to address scenarios where an item was considered valid when a request was made but later turned out to be stolen or had its attributes changed.
The ultimate objective is to offer additional protection to buyers and enhance their overall shopping experience on the platform.
1/ We’ve rolled out new collection offer protection measures that help protect buyers from purchasing items they don’t want. Specifically: sometimes, an item will be in a valid state when an offer is made, only to be flagged as stolen or have its attributes change later.
— OpenSea (@opensea) March 14, 2023
NFT hackers stealing millions
In the recent past, Harpie had warned NFT users about new tactics used by hackers that involve gasless purchases on the OpenSea platform. According to Harpie, these hackers have already managed to steal millions of dollars worth of Apes in just the last few months.
OpenSea, a popular NFT marketplace, requires users to approve a signature request with an unintelligible message to make gasless sales and create private auctions. These signature requests are often presented as mandatory steps to log in and use the website.
The OpenSea contract allows for "gasless sales," where users can sell NFTs by signing an unreadable message like the one above.
— Harpie (@harpieio) December 22, 2022
Here's the catch: you can also set up ⚠️private auctions with custom prices⚠️ with these unreadable signatures. (2/4) pic.twitter.com/Zq0FOYetfR
Unfortunately, this technical loophole is being exploited by phishing websites. These fraudulent websites request unsuspecting customers to sign one of these incomprehensible characters without the victims realizing the potential consequences.
Harpie has noted that hackers are using a trick to send login messages to victims, requesting them to approve the transfer of assets to the hacker’s account for free. These messages are disguised as signature requests for private sales.
Unfortunately, this phishing campaign has resulted in millions of dollars worth of Apes being transferred from the popular NFT marketplace.