Zombie NFTs or how I got suspended from Twitter #6/50
NFT scammers get me kicked off Twitter; it's wild out here
Zombie NFT Projects
Another NFT project went bankrupt this month: Evolved Apes.
Last week, I wrote about it on Twitter. The wonderful folks behind the project? They conspired to get my account suspended.
It’s a perfect illustration about where we are with NFTs right now.
First, let me explain a little bit more about the people behind all this.
Evolved Apes: the bankrupt NFT
Evolved Apes was a NFT project that promised a project where holders would be able to use their avatars to play a game:
The Evolved Apes Universe is a collection of 10000 unique NFTs trapped inside a lawless land. Fighting for survival, only the strongest ape will prevail.
Here's an example of the artwork - the most expensive ape, available for 7,778 ETH ($28m)
The founder, aptly named Evil Ape, inflated the project’s Twitter followers and Discord numbers by offering free cryptocurrency to followers. The giveaways were targeted at users who play games online to make real-world money. (Here’s an in-depth article on Venezuelans who play Runescape for income as a backgrounder.)
Of course, people participating in the giveaways don’t really care about the underlying NFT project - they’re looking for free stuff.
As we explored in the last edition, engagement metrics are the early signals NFTs buyers use to understand market interest and decide to buy into a project. Big Twitter or Discords numbers? That should make a potential buyer more confident that the project will be a success.
The Evolved Apes team ran a coordinated playbook of hyping the project, inflating engagement numbers, and wash trading to make the project seem highly valuable. It wasn’t their first time; they’ve been running this playbook for a few months.
The Evolved Apes mint and subsequent trading days were successful: the project pulled in $2.7m, a solid success.
Then, at the beginning of October, Evil Ape transferred all of the funds - the money to run the project, to pay its artists, to complete the fighting game promised on its roadmap - every cent to a personal ETH wallet. And because it’s on the blockchain, these transfers are plain for everyone to see.
The project is dead, but the NFTs live on.
Zombie NFTs for Sale
When a NFT scam goes public, the holders are still stuck with the digital assets. Unlike alt coins that get delisted, these worthless NFTs never disappear.
I call them, Zombie NFTs.
Evolved Apes was a verified project on OpenSea, the eBay of NFTs. While verification on social platforms implies an account is legitimate, in actuality, OpenSea verification just means a project achieved 100 ETH of trading volume.
While Evolved Apes is no longer verified by OpenSea, it is still listed on the platform — you can buy and trade a Evolved Ape right now despite the fact the project is fundamentally broke.
Floor price? Zero dollars.
Here's one you can have for free:
Pump and Dumps
These scams are called “Pump and dumps” as they artificially pump up prices of an asset, sell for more a manipulated price, and dump the unsuspecting buyer with worthless garbage.
These scams often create artificially high prices for “top assets.” Some high prices make the project look like it might be worth a lot, depending on rarity, especially while the project is still being minted. Or that there are a lot of true believers in the project, which implies long-term value.
As of right now, a dozen Evolved Apes are listed for >100 ETH. These are largely NFTs in wallets with nothing else in them. And you can still buy them, despite the project being rekt.
This is one reason an NFT scam is still so dangerous after it’s been found out - assets are still for sale.
Zombies Attack
Which pulls me into the story.
Late Saturday night, my Twitter account got suspended. I was surprised to say the least - my last tweet was a silly joke about Squid Games.
But when I filed an appeal I found out that my account had been flagged for “impersonation.”
I use @paul_griffiths as my handle; I have had my account since December 2007, with almost 5k followers.
Who was I impersonating?
Weirder still, I surmised multiple reports of impersonation had been filed. Impersonation reports are not like flagging a tweet; they’re filed on an entire account, which is why all my content is down.
I recently edited an article about NFT scam rings which featured Evolved Apes. There is now an update appended to the top of it which reads:
UPDATE: MY TWITTER (@LEADER) WAS TARGET BANNED BY [EVIL APE AND HIS BUDDY] FOR THIS ARTICLE.
The Scammer Playbook
The promise of a decentralized web is that users can self-organize without the need for platforms. And yet, we’re stuck in this in-between where bad actors can leverage the Web 2.0 social platforms to perpetuate fraud without risk of prosecution.
Today, the scammers playbook is:
Use Twitter to drive fake interest in a project
Use OpenSea to verify the project
Mint the project openly
Funnel funds using public wallets into crypto platform exchanges
Use anti-harassment tools to silence people who report scammers’ activity
Do it all over again
NFT scammers operate freely thanks to the libertarian ideals of Big Tech; a hands-off, user-driven, user-generated content is how we’ve ended up in a place of wide spread misinformation and distrust.
However, in a world where cryptocurrency can be exchanged in an instant on these same platforms, fraud is going to be a major concern. Evolved Apes is not the first scam, nor the last scam; they’re only going to get bigger.
I’m no longer convinced sure Big Tech has the luxury of letting users work it out themselves, especially since real money is involved, despite Big Tech’s lack of interest otherwise.
As of now, it’s been four days of my suspension.
Twitter support has yet to respond.
Next time (probably? I mean, I didn’t see *this* coming, so who knows?):
How NFTs are like securities
The coming waves of NFT thefts
How to protect yourself from bad actors
Tweet of the Moment
An actual scam Twitter post, still live, for a zombie NFT project.
As always, I have so much more to tell you,
Paul
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References:
Well, this was an interesting outcome.
Did you get suspended again?