A Youtuber going by the name Coffeezilla has unveiled a plot by NFT scammers who were planning to make a potential $20 million through illicit ways.
On the 16th of February 2022, Coffeezilla released a video with a detailed description of how the scam was supposed to go down. The scammers created an NFT project called “Squiggles” with the intention to fool oblivious investors who were eager to use their wealth in the next big NFT collection.
The NFT collection was set to launch in OpenSea, with a considerable social media presence to “hype up” people. A lot of shadow wallets were used to artificially increase the collection’s price by making it appear as though a massive volume of transactions was happening.
The scammers intended to trick investors into thinking that many people were excited about the project, which would mean that somebody would make a massive purchase with the hopes of making a profit.
Coffeezilla investigated the public records and described how a series of fake wallets generating millions worth of fake volume were all connected. For example, one account spent around 800 ETH across two transactions, which led to hundreds of new wallets emerging in the chain of transactions.
The project was already gathering suspicion even before Cofeezilla’s report because a “whistleblower” emerged who claimed the founder on paper wasn’t the actual creator of the collection. Furthermore, they claimed that the real founder had been involved in several similar scams before, and this was just their next project with which to take people’s money.
The primary suspects in this fraud have been identified as Gavin, Al, Gabe, and a high school student. The scam they supposedly pulled off was well thought out. Responding to the potential backlash, the scammers tried to appear legitimate by releasing several other NFT projects unrelated to their primary collection.
Furthermore, they tied themselves to other companies, such as the “NFT Factory,” and even rented an office with real employees to appear as professionals. Finally, the scammers made sure to pump up the price of their collection by increasing the project’s popularity.
One primary way of doing that involved offering many giveaways, which ended up being won by their close friends since they were all staged.
The founders celebrated the upcoming launch of their NFT collection by taking it to social media with the title “Squiggle boys,” but Gavin, who appeared on the photo, quickly distanced himself by claiming that he was in the company of people who don’t have a good reputation.
