Ozzy Osbourne NFT Scam: Fake CryptoBatz Link Dupes Investors Off Thousands of Dollars

Scammers made a fake Discord page based on an outdated URL that was initially shared by the Twitter handle of CryptoBatz, but was changed later.

By Radhika Parashar | Updated: 24 January 2022 14:58 IST

Ozzy Osbourne NFT Scam: Fake CryptoBatz Link Dupes Investors Off Thousands of Dollars

Photo Credit: Facebook/ Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne hasn’t issued a statement yet

Highlights

Details on how many people scammed is unknown
There’s no information on the scammers either
CryptoBatz NFTs being sold on OpenSea also

Amid escalating sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), British heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne recently forayed into the NFT sector with his CryptoBatz collection, which comprises a series of 9,666 digital bats designed after Osbourne's persona. Just two days after Osbourne's digital collectibles opened for sale, people complained about a potential phishing scam linked to CryptoBatz. It is noteworthy that the scam link that is reportedly draining crypto wallets was visible in tweets shared by official account of Osbourne's NFT project.

Osbourne's collection was put up for sale on Discord NFT marketplace. The project recently switched the URL that redirected interested buyers onto the purchase page. Scammers took advantage of this URL change and engineered a fake Discord server on the old URL.

The tweets showing the outdated link of the CryptoBatz page on Discord were not removed. While those tweets have now been deleted, their screenshots are making the rounds on social media.

OpenSea Sets New All-Time High of $3.5 Billion in Monthly NFT Sales

So scammers copied and set up a fake discord and set up the old cryptobatz vanity URL. The old tweet with the old URL never got deleted, so as it filtered into people's feeds, they inadvertently were being taken to the scam discord. pic.twitter.com/OmNaavPg3q
— Dennis | d3layd.eth | #MindfulDegens (@d3layd) January 22, 2022

People who clicked on this old URL on the official handle of CryptoBatz found themselves trapped in the scam, The Verge reported.

The malicious link asked users to verify their crypto assets and directed them to a phishing site, prompting them to connect their cryptocurrency wallets. The invite panel of the fake Discord page showed 1,330 as the total number of “community members” — which is being speculated to be the number of people who had been scammed by that time.

Selling Selfies as NFTs Earned This Indonesian Student Over $1 Million

Victims of the scam have taken to Twitter to voice their complaints.

@Hunter01eth @melvinjffr said I could message u about some scam they took about $100 in ETH from my wallet when trying to purchase a CryptoBatz NFT… any help would be dope. Thx
— GunzDaGoon (@GoettenGunner) January 21, 2022

As of now, the exact details on the amount of money stolen and the number of people scammed remain unknown. Osbourne's public statement on the incident also remains awaited.

Meanwhile, Sutter Systems, the creators of the CryptoBatz NFTs have blamed Discord for how this scam panned out.

“In an email statement, Sutter Systems co-founder ‘Jepeggi' emphasised that the compromise was only possible because of the easy setup and maintenance of the scam Discord instance,” the report said.

Discord, on the other hand, is conducting internal investigations into the case.

Osbourne announced his CryptoBatz collection in December last year.

The bat theme of Osbourne's NFT collection is in reminder of an infamous on-stage moment of the singer, when he bit off the head of a bat while performing in Des Moines, Iowa, US, in 1982, thinking it was made of rubber.

NFT makers like Bored Ape Yacht Club, SupDucks, and CrypToadz have joined forces with Osbourne's collection to let his digital bats mutate with their NFTs, a special feature Osbourne added to his collection.

The CryptoBatz NFTs are also available for purchase on OpenSea for around ETH 1.8, amounting to $5,046 (roughly Rs. 3.75 lakh).

The sales of NFTs amassed around $25 billion (roughly Rs. 1,84,700 crore) in 2021, as the speculative crypto asset exploded in popularity.

The rising popularity of NFTs among investors have seemingly garnered the attention of scammers, who have already been ramping up illicit activities targeting the crypto space.

In a recent report, research firm Chainalysis revealed that scams mooched off over $7.7 billion (roughly Rs. 58,700 crore) from investors last year.

Interested in cryptocurrency? We discuss all things crypto with WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty and WeekendInvesting founder Alok Jain on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Non-Fungible Tokens, NFTs, Ozzy Osbourne, Cryptocurrency, Crypto Scam

Radhika Parashar

Email Radhika

Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More