Porsche cut its minting of a new NFT collection short after a dismal turnout and backlash from the crypto community, allowing threat actors to fill the void by creating phishing sites that steal digital assets from cryptocurrency wallets.
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are digital assets stored on a blockchain, representing proof of authenticity and ownership of an item, such as an artwork image, music, and anything that can take the form of digital media.
The German automaker launched its first NFT mint last Monday, January 23, 2023, offering a digital replica of the iconic 911 car for 0.911 ETH, valued at about $1,500.
On January 24, Porsche announced they would stop the minting process and cut the supply until they figured out how to get the NFT debut right. The actual minting process didn’t stop until January 25 at 6 AM UTC-5, giving scammers plenty of chance to leverage the confusing situation.
While the Porsche NFTs rose in value in the coming days, so did the scale of fraudulent activity around the mint, with threat actors launching phishing sites to impersonate an ongoing Porsche mint.
However, when users connected their crypto wallets to the phishing sites, they would attempt to drain the assets and funds in the wallets.
This forced Porsche to warn on January 27 about fake accounts promoting the continuation of the NFT minting process to steal people’s details and assets.
