NFT scams are becoming increasingly rampant within the crypto-art sphere, with more and more bad actors looking to exploit the good intentions of others for personal gain.
What Happened: Hopeexist1, a self-proclaimed pixel artist, is one such individual who has recently been accused of such behavior.
NFT educator ArcanicNFT sheds light on how the artist allegedly scammed Crypto Twitter.
The artist claimed to be battling cancer and was selling an art collection to raise funds for treatment. The collection was priced at $13 to mint, a small price to support a good cause, or so people thought.
The campaign quickly garnered a lot of attention on social media, with many people sharing the art and donating to the cause. Within a couple of hours, the collection had sold out and was trending #1 on OpenSea.
However, things took a dark turn when people started to investigate who this person really was.
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Why It Matters: Old tweets surfaced which revealed that this person had been engaging in this type of behavior since 2021, using cancer as a ruse to steal money from people with good intentions. Quickly after this knowledge was exposed, Hopeexist1 deactivated their account, leaving behind a trail of distrust and resentment.
The total amount of funds stolen was around 60+ Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) worth $117K.
Price Action: At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $1,874, up 1.23% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro.
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