Investors Spent Millions on 'Evolved Apes' NFTs. Then They Got Scammed

[MNbag]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3dyem/investors-spent-millions-on-evolved-apes-nfts-then-they-got-scammed

You may be wondering at this point about why I am posting these kinds of news, doesn't everyone know that NFTs are impractical at this point?

And to this, I would like to direct you to this article.

This shit still happens, and it happens every single day.

What is the point of spending your energy convincing people to buy Bitcoin and other cryptos when scam artists divebomb victims every single day?

I will hence post about every single NFT scam that I can find information about until this shit stops.

We could simply sit back, relax and laugh at the stupid idiots who throw their money at this. But what do we achieve?

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[The Sceptical Chymist]

Rug pulls, a term for when developers take the money and run, are common.

You can tell when an article was written by a member of the younger generation, as they use new terminology to describe very old things (like scams in this case) like they just discovered them.  Drives me nuts.

Anyway, this is what happens when there's way too much money floating around in people's hands.  You get NFT manias, ICOs, shit like Earth2, where idiots speculate on digital plots of land with no purpose or real value, and prices of everything inflating like it was the 1970s all over again.  I just hope it doesn't become like Weimar Germany.

Hate to say it, but those fools who got scammed in this Evil Ape thing got what they had coming to them.  It's economic Darwinism in action, where money flows from people who don't know what to do with it to people who know how to get it (by whatever means).  Hopefully they learn a lesson from this episode.

[Kittygalore]

This is why we shouldn't put too much money investing in NFT, just enough to make sure that you're good and you've ridden the hype train. This is also another reason why we should search carefully regarding this thing because not every NFT wants a community.

[Ucy]

Things like that could easily be stopped if the community, those affected, law enforcement agencies etc are doing their jobs well.
These people care very little about others, so they cheat and let things like that pass by.
If you insist that the right thing be done, certain people will be mad at you or try to attack you as if they enjoy the problem or are part of it.

I occasionally come across similar issues in physical World, but you could get discouraged by people when you want the right thing to be done. They may do worse things to repay you for daring to "interfere" or for trying to stop the evil.
I'm still trying to properly understand why certain security agencies don't want to interfere or act when issues like that are brought to them. Guess there are issues they consider too much for them to handle, they're trying to avoid causing more problems, or they probably just don't want to intervene in things that are beyond their control... Still not good excuse

[noorman0]

The NFT Marketplace is solely dedicated to art and gaming connoisseurs. I don't know the percentage of NFT customers who fit the market criteria,  but it's impossible to be dominant. I've always assumed that most entrants to the NFT space are due to their interest in trying their luck again after the shitcoins hype phase, and actually they don't know what space they're in.

[kryptqnick]

Ouch, 2.7 million dollars lost to this scam... Honestly, I'm surprised that NFTs involve scam. Not because I believe in NFTs or anything, but because people are basically selling original memes and stuff, which is widely available content but just something that with NFT certifies the transfer of ownership. I didn't follow the development of the NFT market after the initial hype, and from the story with apes I see it's more nuanced than that and people get scammed over digital content like this. The saddest part is that the victims, instead of letting go, want to build a project based on the ashes of the former one, and still proceed with NFTs... I guess some people don't learn.

[Bitstar_coin]

Unfortunately you can't force people to do what they have no intention of doing, I believe 99% of people in this space are grownups who are capable of doing little research, the hype of nft is too high now it is no more surprising to here news like this,  it would have been better if they bought btc with the money instead, well I hope they have learnt a lesson and perhaps others would learn from them too.

[Silberman]

Rug pulls, a term for when developers take the money and run, are common.

You can tell when an article was written by a member of the younger generation, as they use new terminology to describe very old things (like scams in this case) like they just discovered them.  Drives me nuts.

Anyway, this is what happens when there's way too much money floating around in people's hands.  You get NFT manias, ICOs, shit like Earth2, where idiots speculate on digital plots of land with no purpose or real value, and prices of everything inflating like it was the 1970s all over again.  I just hope it doesn't become like Weimar Germany.

Hate to say it, but those fools who got scammed in this Evil Ape thing got what they had coming to them.  It's economic Darwinism in action, where money flows from people who don't know what to do with it to people who know how to get it (by whatever means).  Hopefully they learn a lesson from this episode.

Simple as that, if people want to exchange their hard earned money for magical beans then that is their problem, obviously I am outraged by what the scammers can get away with but as we know we are our own banks now, if some people are willing to invest in the best assets this market has to offer and some other people want to invest in highly speculative projects, to say the least, then that is their problem, whenever I hear someone thinking about this I still warn them and hope to help them out avoid the scam but I know that sooner or later they will lose their money anyway.

[macson]

This is why we shouldn't put too much money investing in NFT, just enough to make sure that you're good and you've ridden the hype train. This is also another reason why we should search carefully regarding this thing because not every NFT wants a community.

when i saw that an NFT was selling for a fantastic price, i just thought that person had been scammed.  The NFT hype will end and those who have spent a lot of money will regret the decisions they made, if want to invest then invest in coins or tokens like bitcoin or ethereum.

[DrBeer]

And what did you expect from the market, or rather a sub-technology that ensures its existence only through the sale of "unique content", which in fact is not. It's like if someone, having learned that paintings for example Picasso are worth millions, starts painting with their "left foot" 50 paintings a day, and exhibit them at the price of Picasso or Dali. No, maybe in the beginning they will buy a couple of them, a couple of crazy people with money, but this is more a deviation than a normal reaction ...

[Shenzou]

NFTs are still a hype that i am sure that it will soon die out, and because of that people are still to exploit people's overhyping something to scam just like what happened with ICOs back in 2017 and now we are seeing it happen with NFTs, and i am sure that people will soon come to realize how a waste of investment it is, and they will go back to using crypto because obviously it is the best promising and safe investment there is.

[batang_bitcoin]

What is the point of spending your energy convincing people to buy Bitcoin and other cryptos when scam artists divebomb victims every single day?

There is a point and we might save someone who's been eyeing to get into those potential scams in NFTs. It's very typical that scammers are everywhere and they're very active every day.
The problem lies with the people that don't diligently use their time to research and just think of how much return will be in the most possible quickest time that they'll allocate into an investment such as NFT. They should think more realistic than to have those too good to be true assets, many NFTs are legitimate but they should also think that there are many scams.

[Hydrogen]

This story may not be legitimate. It could be a variation of Jack Dorsey's 1st tweet NFT selling for "2.9 million" or the other fake NFT story that sold for "$69 million". I doubt anyone would spent millions on this. We have confirmed evidence its easy to manufacture and publicize fake news on NFTs to push narratives with the "$69 million NFT" story being proven false.

Even if it were true, would there be anything special or noteworthy about the enron/gamestop of NFTs? Scams occur in all markets and exchanges. Things get weird when people claim scams are exclusive to one market, asset, commodity or currency and not another.

For every NFT scam that exists, there could be people who are profiting and making money off them in a legitimate sense. The media has a tendency to cover only the positives, while ignoring the negatives, or the opposite. I wish people wouldn't jump to conclusions on things, simply due to the media covering the negative side of NFTs. Without much emphasis on the positives.

[stompix]

I have a better title for this:

Evolved Apes turns out to be a Monkey Business!

Obviously, some poeple lost money, maybe some have lost their savings but one has to understand at some point that not every single damn scheme can bring you ridiculous gains overnight, if every single coin or token or scheme or nft or game would do so we would have long run out fo money to prop those prices up.
At this point what's left to hope is not that those scams will stop, not with that amount of money to be gained but that poeple will stop throwing so much money at every random project, or at least they will only put down money that they can afford to lose.
But I know that's wishful thinking probably there are at least a dozen more games like that in the making as we speak.

[Twinkledoe]

NFTs are still a hype that i am sure that it will soon die out, and because of that people are still to exploit people's overhyping something to scam just like what happened with ICOs back in 2017 and now we are seeing it happen with NFTs, and i am sure that people will soon come to realize how a waste of investment it is, and they will go back to using crypto because obviously it is the best promising and safe investment there is.

I don't think it will soon die out because artists, known personalities and athletes are just starting to discover this industry to connect with their fans. They are finding out that this is a new digital way how to earn income by the support of their respective followers. I've been seeing several athletes that already released their own NFT collectibles. And I believe, it is just a beginning. If you are a buyer, I think to avoid being scammed, do your homework and dig more about the authenticity of the item.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I don't think it will soon die out because artists, known personalities and athletes are just starting to discover this industry to connect with their fans.

I don't see any logic in the above statement, i.e., a cause and effect.  Athletes looking to connect with their fans?  Are you kidding?  They're looking to make money, nothing more, nothing less--and so are those "fans" who buy these garbage NFTs.  I could probably come up with dozens of ways sports stars could connect with fans within a half hour, and none of them would include creating digital blockchain pictures that idiots think are so unique that they're worth outrageous sums of money.

If you are a buyer, I think to avoid being scammed, do your homework and dig more about the authenticity of the item.

Well isn't that the whole point of an NFT, that the blockchain ensures that the "thing" is unique and authentic?  How much research can one do to figure that out?

[Dave1]

NFTs are still a hype that i am sure that it will soon die out, and because of that people are still to exploit people's overhyping something to scam just like what happened with ICOs back in 2017 and now we are seeing it happen with NFTs, and i am sure that people will soon come to realize how a waste of investment it is, and they will go back to using crypto because obviously it is the best promising and safe investment there is.

I don't think it will soon die out because artists, known personalities and athletes are just starting to discover this industry to connect with their fans. They are finding out that this is a new digital way how to earn income by the support of their respective followers. I've been seeing several athletes that already released their own NFT collectibles. And I believe, it is just a beginning. If you are a buyer, I think to avoid being scammed, do your homework and dig more about the authenticity of the item.

It might not die soon, but when there's a new hype, for sure NFT will be left in the closet, just like how it evolves, ICO-IDO-IEO etc. People are looking for new hype.

So there's no surprised as well as people are being scammed with this latest craze. They should learn from past history of crypto market. Of course not every NFT are scam, but are they really worth that huge money to begin with?

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

That's why it's always a good thing to exercise caution especially with NFT as they're illiquid and it's going to be difficult to be able to get the money back especially with NFTs banking on hype to become popular, also it's a good thing that you should get in early so you won't lose as much from investing.

[Darker45]

Yeah, shit happens every single day. So if you want to put a stop to all this, good luck, but I doubt you will stop it. I am not saying we will just sit back, relax, and enjoy watching other people burning their money in NFTs. What I'm saying is that people's follies are without limits. So however hard you will explain to them that art and collectible NFTs are impractical and absurd, there will always be people who will buy them.

It's simply a matter of perspective. Maybe for us, it is beyond sanity that one should buy an NFT worth a million dollars, but to someone, Beeple's Everydays: The First 5,000 Days is still worth buying at $69,346,250. Well, who am I to say the buyer is stupid and I am not?

[wajik-tempe]

It's happening when investors have so much money and confuse how to spend them 
Till right now i still think how it become worth investing thousand dollars to an NFT pictures that has nothing to do, it's different if you invest on game NFT items which have advantages to the game if you have it. But if it's just a picture, there is no way it worth that much money.
This scams could be make NFT's image looks bad, even though there are so much potential for developing NFT systems.