Hundreds Of Thousands Of NFT Dollars Stolen In SIM Swap Attack On Gutter Cat Gang Project

Reported SIM swap attacks occurred on the NFT Gutter Cat Gang project. (photo: twitter @GutterCatGang)

JAKARTA - More than US$765,000 (Rp11.5 billion) in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFT) has been stolen in a SIM swap attack reported to have occurred in the NFT Gutter Cat Gang project.

This security breach was revealed by several members of the NFT community at around 8:00 p.m. UTC on July 7, with co-founder Gutter Cat Gang, Gutter Mitch, sending a warning via a tweet: "Our Twitter account was hacked, please don't interact with any links."

In addition to the official Gutter Cat Gang account, another founder, Gutter Ric, was also hacked.

Hackers used the account to share links to fake limited edition NFT shoe airdrops from Gutter Cat Gang which basically drains people's online wallets when they click on them.

To make fake links look more legitimate, the tweet includes the latest brand and image of the Gutter Cat Gang from the launch of the project's shoes in partnership with Puma and NBA star/Cha Hornets, LaMelo Ball.

Responding to Gutter Mitch' tweet, leading blockchain tracker ZachXBT stated that the team was hacked through a SIM swap attack, while questioning the team's cybersecurity practices.

"Your team should consider a compensation plan for the victims because they are very negligent in using SMS 2FA on your social media after many recent SIM swap attacks," said ZachXBT.

In a separate tweet, ZachXBT highlighted two victims of the attack, one of which lost an NFT Bored Ape Yacht Club worth US$65,913 (Rp999 million) at current prices, and the other lost $ 700,000 worth of NFT (Rp10.6 billion) from a number of blue chip collections.

Giving updates on the matter, co-founder of Gutter Cat Gang, Gutter Dan, stated: "We are working with Twitter to regain access to a Twitter account regarding the hacked Gutter."

"We strongly sympathize with all those affected and want to convince you that we are very serious about dealing with this issue and are working with law enforcement to investigate these attacks and security breaches," he wrote.

Gutter Cat Gang launched in mid-2021 and consists of 3000 unique NFT cat avatars. The current lowest price is 0.5 Ether (ETH), up nearly 615% from the starting fee for printing NFT, according to NFT Price Floor.