Layer 1 blockchain Aptos has gained some traction since its controversial launch, but not all of the chain’s interest has come from legitimate players.
On Monday, several users reported that an NFT project called Aptos Chimps sucked up over 5,000 APT (about $40,000) tokens in a wallet drain scam.
Aptos Chimps sent around a fake link to a legitimate NFT marketplace, Topaz Market, then promised a free mint for NFTs, to lure unsuspecting users into connecting their wallets. When someone connected their wallet to the dodgy site, the drainer wallet pilfered all of their APT tokens.
The URL for the original Topaz Market webpage is “topaz.so”, while the scammers’ fraudulent link leads users to “topaz.pw.”
Aptos community page D3gens notified the community of the scam, initially claiming that the scammers stole over $12 million but later updating the amount drained to between 4,000-5,000 tokens.
The scammers made it difficult for sleuths to pinpoint the number of tokens they drained by sending the stolen funds to multiple different addresses. On Oct. 30, one user claimed that the drainer wallet had a balance of 15,000 APT tokens.
Blockchain marketing account CEN tweeted that the dodgy project continues to send scammy links to people. The Aptos Chimps Twitter account had 13,400 followers at the time of writing.
