QI Quadriga Initiative

Oct 2021 - OpenSea Hashmasks Fake Listing - $Unknown (Global)

"Hashmasks are ancient traits and memories of the first travelers to Earth. Their journey here was long and hard. The Hashmasks forgot their names by the time they arrived. They left clues for us to unravel so that we could discover their meaning.​"

"Hashmasks is a living digital art collectible created by over 70 artists globally. It is a collection of 16,384 unique digital portraits. Brought to you by Suum Cuique Labs from Zug, Switzerland."

"By holding the artwork, you accumulate the NCT token on a daily basis, which allows you to choose a name for your portrait on the Ethereum blockchain. This is your opportunity to be among the first to participate in one of the largest collaborative NFT art projects in existence."

"The person or persons who created these fakes almost deserves credit for being cunning enough to superimpose what looks like a real OpenSea verified blue check mark on the stolen Hashmasks logo inside the logo’s border (see below). They link to the real Hashmasks website and Discord and are betting people won’t notice the extra apostrophe after “Hasmasks.” Another tell is, this sham collection is on Polygon. The real Hashmasks are only on the Ethereum network. Stealing the legit background is another sneaky touch. The URL with a “-10” after hashmasks is a dead giveaway and the total traded is a pittance compared to the REAL Hashmasks at 39,600 ETH total traded volume. Lastly, there’s the owner count well short of the true collection’s 5,000+ unique wallets."

Further Analysis

HashMasks sells NFTs on OpenSea. Another malicious actor managed to create a second OpenSea account which was also named HashMasks and copied the same layout elements, complete with a fake verification badge. Some individuals were fooled into purchasing NFTs from the fake account instead of the real account. It is uncertain if any funds will be recovered.

How Could This Have Been Prevented?

Individuals transacting in the cryptocurrency space need to be extra careful to ensure that they are purchasing an asset from the correct location. Get the link from at least 3 independent sources and verify that they all match. Trading platforms have a similar responsibility to check all newly listed coins or tokens.

More Cryptocurrency Exchange Hacks/Scams/Frauds

MaskByte Discord Hacked > > < < SolToadz And ZombieSolToadz NFT Rug Pull

Sources/Further Reading

https://maskdao.medium.com/shut-em-down-%EF%B8%8F-1aafe0715342 (Feb 16)
https://opensea.io/collection/hashmasks (Feb 21)
Hashmasks (Feb 21)
@GinoTheGhost Twitter (Mar 21)


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