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

[uneng]

If you are talking about Lost Relics on Enjin then I too have known this from around 2018. Did play the game a few times but it was too simplistic to be enjoyable. The developers still have the NFT functionality built in where any in-game items you win will appear in your blockchain wallet. Its just that the games themselves aren't refined enough to have this economy make much of a difference.

I still hope Lost Relics can have a sustainable economy at some point. For now it's not possible yet because the game is in Alpha phase, and many items we have acquired grinding don't have a function in game. But an usage is being given to them as we have new updates being introduced. I've played for long hours already and have also bought a legendary bow weapon through Enjin platform. For me it has been entertaining.

While I'd prefer that these working projects reach scale and find lot of players, the reality is that till a real game studio comes on the scene, single developers and small teams simply cannot deliver the same level of art and game mechanics. When the big studios decide to pivot to blockchain, these games will simply stop getting supported as the developers will be hired by the established studios.

I think the called Indie games will still have attention and support from players' community, although in minor scale if compared to the products of big studios, just like we see in the traditional gaming industry. Maybe developers can be hired by an established company or even have their games purchased by someone else and that is a risk to be taken. However the risk also exist when you make purchases at any other virtual games. It's not an exclusivity of blockchain games' category.

This is what has been happening forever and that is the reason that people just want to make a quick profit as soon as possible. The "Flippers" are at the bottom of the food chain. The real predators are the people like those behind "Evolved Apes". The ones who realize that it is easy to create hype in this space and decide to simply scam people out of their money.

Speculation inflates prices a lot during hypes in crypto market as a whole. People just need to be careful where they invest money and if determined investment worths that amount to be invested.

As I understood, in Evolved Apes' case there were only promises of a potential game, what was already a red flag indicating people could be dealing with a predator, as you said. After all the guy behind the project didn't create anything. He just collected money from investors, ordered some art creations from third party artists (who weren't paid) and ran away with the money.


As you mentioned games created by bigger studios, the most recent mmorpg one is called MIR4, created by a south korean company called WEMADE. The game has introduced its own token called DRACO and has promised NFTs for November. It works in partnership with WEMIX wallet. It's a free to play game.

[1714689550]

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[Oceat]

Only invest what you can afford to lose and make sure that you are financially stable and don’t go all-in. This is what I’ve been doing so far. I have invested into NFTs (e.g., collectibles and play to earn NFTs) and already treating it as “dead money”. Until now I have yet to sell a single NFT. We should be prepared emotionally and once you deposited that money into NFT, accept the fact that you’re gonna lose it. 

If that's what going to happen to the future investors then why bother to invest in this kind of crappy investment? Some NFT games are just too hype up that's why we've seen a lot of people investing on it but once the hype is down, people will suddenly realize what they were doing.

I don't like the idea of a rug pull but it's their fault why they gave their money to someone because of the hype and devs are riding on it while they can but once it's not in the trend they suddenly pull the rug and it left most of the new investors to force selling their NFT or holding on it because it has no value at all.

[electronicash]

If you are talking about Lost Relics on Enjin then I too have known this from around 2018. Did play the game a few times but it was too simplistic to be enjoyable. The developers still have the NFT functionality built in where any in-game items you win will appear in your blockchain wallet. Its just that the games themselves aren't refined enough to have this economy make much of a difference.

I still hope Lost Relics can have a sustainable economy at some point. For now it's not possible yet because the game is in Alpha phase, and many items we have acquired grinding don't have a function in game. But an usage is being given to them as we have new updates being introduced. I've played for long hours already and have also bought a legendary bow weapon through Enjin platform. For me it has been entertaining.

While I'd prefer that these working projects reach scale and find lot of players, the reality is that till a real game studio comes on the scene, single developers and small teams simply cannot deliver the same level of art and game mechanics. When the big studios decide to pivot to blockchain, these games will simply stop getting supported as the developers will be hired by the established studios.

I think the called Indie games will still have attention and support from players' community, although in minor scale if compared to the products of big studios, just like we see in the traditional gaming industry. Maybe developers can be hired by an established company or even have their games purchased by someone else and that is a risk to be taken. However the risk also exist when you make purchases at any other virtual games. It's not an exclusivity of blockchain games' category.

This is what has been happening forever and that is the reason that people just want to make a quick profit as soon as possible. The "Flippers" are at the bottom of the food chain. The real predators are the people like those behind "Evolved Apes". The ones who realize that it is easy to create hype in this space and decide to simply scam people out of their money.

Speculation inflates prices a lot during hypes in crypto market as a whole. People just need to be careful where they invest money and if determined investment worths that amount to be invested.

As I understood, in Evolved Apes' case there were only promises of a potential game, what was already a red flag indicating people could be dealing with a predator, as you said. After all the guy behind the project didn't create anything. He just collected money from investors, ordered some art creations from third party artists (who weren't paid) and ran away with the money.


As you mentioned games created by bigger studios, the most recent mmorpg one is called MIR4, created by a south korean company called WEMADE. The game has introduced its own token called DRACO and has promised NFTs for November. It works in partnership with WEMIX wallet. It's a free to play game.

since he did nothing. create nothing then it's really a sign. what he created are just website and accounts to convince that something will happen. and it happened, he got what he wants.

you can't expect someone who is anonymous, with a motivation to scam and handed over 798ETH which is worth $2.7M will not run. such an opportunity never comes every day for an anonymous developer. if i was one of the investors i wouldn't really expect to get the money back.

[herurist]

Only invest what you can afford to lose and make sure that you are financially stable and don’t go all-in. This is what I’ve been doing so far. I have invested into NFTs (e.g., collectibles and play to earn NFTs) and already treating it as “dead money”. Until now I have yet to sell a single NFT. We should be prepared emotionally and once you deposited that money into NFT, accept the fact that you’re gonna lose it. 

indirectly you want to put this into a more serious direction by looking at a bright future.
but for this NFT project I don't think it will run smoothly when it continues to be exposed to news like this, besides that on the other hand NFT has been overhyped for the past few months and of course when something like this happens it must be used by irresponsible people by making NFT scam.
maybe for the next few months or years NFT will still be good but for the longer term this hype will end and even I think if the fraud continues, NFT may also be labeled as the 2nd ICO

[Silberman]

I don't understand why are people surprised by this? I am expecting more of this to come very soon. NFT craze has reached a level which is now called stupidity, everyone just coming up with the same idea by applying a new label on the same old shit<snip run-on sentence>

Lol.  It's definitely in the stupidity phase, if there is such a thing.  Lots of people are apparently making bundles of money from this crap, but that's exactly what NFTs are: Crap.  This is the closest thing to the tulip bubble I've ever seen.  You know what happened to all the Dutch people when they realized they'd gone out of their minds speculating on bulb variants and whatnot, right?  The market crashed to as close to zero as you can get.  If the NFT hysteria lasts for more than a year, I'll be very surprised.

Unfortunately this is something that we have seen many times in the past, we saw the coin bubble of the 80’s, beanie babies and comic books on the 90’s and there are probably many other examples of this happening all over the world, NFTs are just part of a long list of bubbles that can go nowhere but down, however I also think that some are taking advantage of the bubble and are fueling it by laundering money with it, so if I were to guess some of the big sales are attempts to launder money or clear cases of people manipulating and inflating the price of those assets so they can later sell it to someone that thinks they made a good deal when in fact the asset never had any demand whatsoever.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Well, who am I to say the buyer is stupid and I am not?

Who are you?  You're you.  And we're constantly judging things and people every day, whether we like to think of ourselves as judgemental or not--it's just the way humans are.  And if you think NFTs are stupid, I say acknowledge that thought or else you might up thinking the emperor is wearing clothes when in fact he is not.  Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade.

Unfortunately this is something that we have seen many times in the past, we saw the coin bubble of the 80’s, beanie babies and comic books on the 90’s and there are probably many other examples of this happening all over the world, NFTs are just part of a long list of bubbles that can go nowhere but down

Exactly.  When bitcoin was created, a lot of people saw immediately that it was a form of money far different than what the world was used to, and that it might possibly be world-changing.  A lot of people thought (and still think) it's worthless, but the fact is that adoption has grown in the 11+ years of its existence.  I strongly suspect NFTs are not going to follow the same course; they're going to go the way of Beanie Babies and all the other crapola you mentioned.

[Quidat]

Exactly.  When bitcoin was created, a lot of people saw immediately that it was a form of money far different than what the world was used to, and that it might possibly be world-changing.  A lot of people thought (and still think) it's worthless, but the fact is that adoption has grown in the 11+ years of its existence.  I strongly suspect NFTs are not going to follow the same course; they're going to go the way of Beanie Babies and all the other crapola you mentioned.

Thats why some people do really jumped in and having the same thoughts that it might really be just the same on what happened to bitcoin.Lots hadnt trusted up on the beginning but it turns out to be revolutionary after a decade or number of years on which i do really see that people doesnt really like to miss up the train on what they havent done in the past thats why we do see these kind of amazing purchase using up millions
in NFT's which most of us could say that it is dumb to make such actions but hey we dont know on what future comes and might end up well for those who do get serious on dealing with NFT's and make
out more millions in the future.It is just having two possible outcome which is richness and being wrekt out.

[ElmedoRator]

NFT is very risky, but also a lot of opportunities that come with it. While the majority of value investors don't pay attention to NFTs for reasons of impossibility, it will be interesting to see how this market plays out. The future no one can predict.

NFT has a lot of features and utilities included, but in this article we only talk about money laundering through NFT, it is only one side of the coin.

[jaberwock]

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?

First of all, people just go ahead and invest their money in things like this jus because they feel that it is good and not because it is good. Before I get involved in any kind of business, I first of all get to know the risks that are involved in that business and how I can avoid those risks, because it’s very important. But, there are a lot of people who don’t look at all those risks, they just rush into it and wouldn’t care to know what those risks are, and later on they will be scammed of their money.

If you don’t understand something at all, it’s always best to stay away from it, to avoid getting scammed. But, some people never know this, rather they allow their greed for money to blind them. No matter how much you say this, it’s always going to happen, because this is not the first time we are talking about this.

[ultrloa]

NFT is very risky, but also a lot of opportunities that come with it. While the majority of value investors don't pay attention to NFTs for reasons of impossibility, it will be interesting to see how this market plays out. The future no one can predict.

NFT has a lot of features and utilities included, but in this article we only talk about money laundering through NFT, it is only one side of the coin.

This is the new trend now so we can expect the risk since many scammers notice that NFT is the new ICO these days and this is why we need to be careful upon choosing what is best so that we will not get scam the same as rug pull scheme they made on BSC tokens.

Indeed NFT has many lot to offer and the best thing we can do is to search the best and don't get over hype on what we think good since we also need to think that not all of them is good investment.

[Darker45]

Well, who am I to say the buyer is stupid and I am not?

Who are you?  You're you.  And we're constantly judging things and people every day, whether we like to think of ourselves as judgemental or not--it's just the way humans are.  And if you think NFTs are stupid, I say acknowledge that thought or else you might up thinking the emperor is wearing clothes when in fact he is not.  Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade.

I definitely think NFTs are not worth buying, but that's something personal. I'd rather withhold my judgement as to the rest who are actively participating in the NFT market. I am certain they see something which I do not. As I've said, it is a matter of perspective. I'd call myself stupid if I buy one of those expensive pixelated CryptoPunk collectibles, for example. Perhaps that's because I don't have any idea what to do with those. But I avoid judging others when it's possible it could be me who is the clueless one.

The NFT market is rather colorful and interesting with the likes of Jack Dorsey, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, CZ, and other personalities buying and selling NFT pieces by the millions. I honestly don't know how they look at what I see as a fool's market.

[ElmedoRator]

NFT is very risky, but also a lot of opportunities that come with it. While the majority of value investors don't pay attention to NFTs for reasons of impossibility, it will be interesting to see how this market plays out. The future no one can predict.

NFT has a lot of features and utilities included, but in this article we only talk about money laundering through NFT, it is only one side of the coin.

This is the new trend now so we can expect the risk since many scammers notice that NFT is the new ICO these days and this is why we need to be careful upon choosing what is best so that we will not get scam the same as rug pull scheme they made on BSC tokens.

Indeed NFT has many lot to offer and the best thing we can do is to search the best and don't get over hype on what we think good since we also need to think that not all of them is good investment.

Every problem has its own opposite sides, and we also need to understand that a common product cannot satisfy each individual, accept or reject, failure or success is what we decide for ourselves.
Blaming the product I think blame the people who brought it here, also I just got an NFT getting 1 BNB and this is insanely crazy, but it still happens to us

[Silberman]

NFT is very risky, but also a lot of opportunities that come with it. While the majority of value investors don't pay attention to NFTs for reasons of impossibility, it will be interesting to see how this market plays out. The future no one can predict.

NFT has a lot of features and utilities included, but in this article we only talk about money laundering through NFT, it is only one side of the coin.

The problem with this is that you say there is another side of the coin and while that may be true this is not a 50/50 proposition as it would be with a real coin, the real odds are that in 99% of the cases the NFT you could be interested to obtain is a scam in one way or another, and the other side, the one you are talking about, which could turn out to be profitable has only 1% or less of all the NFTs on the market, and when such a disparity exist it is a mistake to even think about investing in such market.

[turneps]

Many people think that NFT is a big profitable investment in the future similar to Bitcoin, so they rush to buy these blockchain products. Millions of dollars have poured into the NFT.
In just a few weeks, the term NFT became the topic of discussion in many technology groups and flooded the Internet. Everything - from basketball player cards, game items, paintings, music to tweets - can be traded as NFT. The market for buying and selling NFT works is very busy. Many people also profit from the NFT works bought and resell.
However, experts say there is no sure way to know if NFT works will maintain their value over time.
NFT is not managed or operated by any entity The risk is great
Many analysts also believe that buying NFT carries many potential risks. Because their value is mainly based on speculation and buyers can only hope one day their NFT will be bought back at a higher price. But no one can guarantee this.

[carlfebz2]

NFT is very risky, but also a lot of opportunities that come with it. While the majority of value investors don't pay attention to NFTs for reasons of impossibility, it will be interesting to see how this market plays out. The future no one can predict.

NFT has a lot of features and utilities included, but in this article we only talk about money laundering through NFT, it is only one side of the coin.

This is the new trend now so we can expect the risk since many scammers notice that NFT is the new ICO these days and this is why we need to be careful upon choosing what is best so that we will not get scam the same as rug pull scheme they made on BSC tokens.

Indeed NFT has many lot to offer and the best thing we can do is to search the best and don't get over hype on what we think good since we also need to think that not all of them is good investment.

Every problem has its own opposite sides, and we also need to understand that a common product cannot satisfy each individual, accept or reject, failure or success is what we decide for ourselves.
Blaming the product I think blame the people who brought it here, also I just got an NFT getting 1 BNB and this is insanely crazy, but it still happens to us

There's always two side of the coin which neither it could be a profitable one or would be a disastrous one and this NFT's is something that is really on that position whether they do end up profitable or would end up

on getting scammed with those things and knowing that NFT neither do have their utility or simply acts as a collection and we dont know if there would be some significant value of it

and also we shouldnt really that complaint out on how those people spent out their money since its their money after all and they do have the full rights on how they would gonna use it.

[LUCKMCFLY]

NFT is very risky, but also a lot of opportunities that come with it. While the majority of value investors don't pay attention to NFTs for reasons of impossibility, it will be interesting to see how this market plays out. The future no one can predict.

NFT has a lot of features and utilities included, but in this article we only talk about money laundering through NFT, it is only one side of the coin.

This is the new trend now so we can expect the risk since many scammers notice that NFT is the new ICO these days and this is why we need to be careful upon choosing what is best so that we will not get scam the same as rug pull scheme they made on BSC tokens.

Indeed NFT has many lot to offer and the best thing we can do is to search the best and don't get over hype on what we think good since we also need to think that not all of them is good investment.

Every problem has its own opposite sides, and we also need to understand that a common product cannot satisfy each individual, accept or reject, failure or success is what we decide for ourselves.
Blaming the product I think blame the people who brought it here, also I just got an NFT getting 1 BNB and this is insanely crazy, but it still happens to us

There's always two side of the coin which neither it could be a profitable one or would be a disastrous one and this NFT's is something that is really on that position whether they do end up profitable or would end up

on getting scammed with those things and knowing that NFT neither do have their utility or simply acts as a collection and we dont know if there would be some significant value of it

and also we shouldnt really that complaint out on how those people spent out their money since its their money after all and they do have the full rights on how they would gonna use it.

I have been watching the behavior of many NFTs, and I think that the games that really excel do so in a very short period of time, they are successful up to a certain point, and then they behave like an unsustainable system, and it is because in their economies they have many cracks, the creators do not calculate well and have errors that the games cost them, yes, they can capitalize in a moment but they do not have the intelligence to mount a game that their economy is prosperous for both them and their own devs, then everything is based on the hope that the metaverses may be the NFT games that do not have such cracks.

[magneto]

Oh, I can name so many NFT scams like these.

One recent one actually involved someone miscoding the smart contract and every single person who tried to mint it got hit with exorbitant gas fees and at the end they all failed.

It's truly a mania that we are in with NFTs. Not sustainable.

[TimeTeller]

NFT is very risky, but also a lot of opportunities that come with it. While the majority of value investors don't pay attention to NFTs for reasons of impossibility, it will be interesting to see how this market plays out. The future no one can predict.

NFT has a lot of features and utilities included, but in this article we only talk about money laundering through NFT, it is only one side of the coin.

This is the new trend now so we can expect the risk since many scammers notice that NFT is the new ICO these days and this is why we need to be careful upon choosing what is best so that we will not get scam the same as rug pull scheme they made on BSC tokens.

Indeed NFT has many lot to offer and the best thing we can do is to search the best and don't get over hype on what we think good since we also need to think that not all of them is good investment.

Every problem has its own opposite sides, and we also need to understand that a common product cannot satisfy each individual, accept or reject, failure or success is what we decide for ourselves.
Blaming the product I think blame the people who brought it here, also I just got an NFT getting 1 BNB and this is insanely crazy, but it still happens to us

There's always two side of the coin which neither it could be a profitable one or would be a disastrous one and this NFT's is something that is really on that position whether they do end up profitable or would end up

on getting scammed with those things and knowing that NFT neither do have their utility or simply acts as a collection and we dont know if there would be some significant value of it

and also we shouldnt really that complaint out on how those people spent out their money since its their money after all and they do have the full rights on how they would gonna use it.

And whatever happens with their NFTs, it is their sole responsibility, because they venture into it.
So if you are one of those who are holding an NFT item or want to acquire one, you should do your own homework first.
At least evaluate its possible value in the future. Is it really worth possessing the NFT item?
Aside from that, check the authenticity of where you are acquiring it especially if you are spending a handsome amount of money.