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Actor and producer Seth Green has fallen prey to everyone’s worst nightmare, a phishing scam. Losing quite a few expensive NFTs aside, the developments have also put a spanner in Green’s plans for his new animated series, which was based on characters from Green’s NFT collection.
Show Plans Receive A Hit
After the actor and producer fell victim to a phishing scam that led to several prized NFTs being stolen, it also jeopardized plans for his new animated series. The new show was to be developed from characters in the producer’s extensive NFT collection. The hack has once again put focus on the shadier side of the industry, with phishing scams such as these becoming commonplace.
Green had teased a small snippet about the show, called White Horse Tavern, at the NFT conference VeeCon. The show is based on the question, “What if your friendly neighborhood bartender was Bored Ape Yacht Club #8398?” Green shed further light on the show and the concept in an interview with entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, where he stated that he wanted to imagine a universe where what you look like wouldn’t matter and that only your attitude would matter.
The Attack On Green’s NFTs
Four of Green’s NFTs were stolen in a phishing attack on the 8th of May. Green revealed details about the attack on Twitter, as he announced to his followers that he lost a Bored Ape NFT, two Mutant Ape NFTs, and a doodle. The NFTs were stolen from his wallet after interacting with a phishing site.
“Well, friends, it happened to me. Got phished and had 4NFT stolen. @BoredApeYC @opensea @doodles @yugalabs please don’t buy or trade these while I work to resolve: @DarkWing84 looks like you bought my stolen ape- hit me up so we can fix it”
The scammer sold Green’s Bored Ape NFT to a pseudo-anonymous individual going by “DarkWings84”, who bought the NFT for over $200,000. Once purchased, the NFT was transferred to a collection called the “GBE_Vault,” where it is currently.
Tricky Copyright Laws
Green’s plans boomeranged when a scammer stole the NFT collection at the beginning of May, which resulted in Green losing commercial rights to the show’s protagonist, a Bored Ape by the name of Fred Simian, the rights and likeness of which belong to someone else. Green commented on the situation, stating,
“I bought that ape in July 2021 and have spent the last several months developing and exploiting the IP to make it into the star of this show. Then days before — his name is Fred, by the way — days before he’s set to make his world debut, he’s literally kidnapped.”
According to Daniel Dubin, a tax and litigation attorney at Alston & Bird LLP, the current owner could make things difficult for Green, should he choose to. NFT copyright laws are complicated and have just made their way into courts. NFT projects have increasingly begun granting owners rights to adapt their works commercially. While this has proved beneficial and increased brand visibility for NFT creators, it has also introduced bitter legal disputes. Not surprisingly, Bored Ape Yacht Club was the first to adopt the above terms.
Green Reaches Out To Buyer
Green, on his part, has been attempting to reach out to the new owner of the Bored Ape NFT, tweeting at DarkWing84 and appealing that they could “work it out between each other.” Green supporters have also sent the user messages, imploring them to contact Green. However, it is not clear if the user knew that the NFT they were purchasing was stolen.
OpenSea has also stated that it has frozen the tokens, as it has done on previous occasions. The stolen NFTs have also been marked with “suspicious activity” warnings. A spokesperson from OpenSea stated,
“We do not have the power to freeze or delist NFTs that exist on decentralized blockchains; however, we do disable the ability to use OpenSea to buy or sell stolen items.”
OpenSea has also come under fire in recent months and is facing lawsuits from other NFT owners who also lost their Bored Ape NFTs to similar phishing scams.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.