Timothy McKimmy, a Texas resident, has filed a lawsuit against OpenSea for at least $1million. He accused OpenSea of negligence, which he claimed led to him losing a “unquestionably” valuable Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT.
McKimmy is alleged to have been one of the victims of recent phishing attacks according to the lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Texas on February 18. CryptoSlate reported that some OpenSea users recently lost million dollars in NFTs from unknown malicious actors.
The attacker created a special smartcontract on Ethereum a month before the actual theft. He then sent emails to several users urging them to transfer their NFTs from an OpenSea smartcontract to a new one. The attacker then initiated open sell orders, which was signed by the new fake contract.
McKimmy was a victim to this scheme and lost his Bored Ape #3475NFT. The complaint alleges that McKimmy is being sold by an unknown owner for at least 225 Ethereum (roughly $568,000).
Phishing in OpenSea
McKimmy claimed that OpenSea had breached its fiduciary obligation to him by failing to implement policies to prevent, identify and detect, respond to and mitigate security violations.
According to the plaintiff, his Bored Ape NFT was allegedly stolen because of a “security vulnerability on OpenSea” that allowed an “outside party to illegally access OpenSea’s Code and [McKimmy’s] NFT wallet”. This allowed him to list and then sell the token.
McKimmy claimed that OpenSea’s vulnerabilities enabled others to access its code and force the listing an NFT.
He said that OpenSea failed to resolve the issue multiple times and the platform did not “reverse the transaction, return Bored Apes or provide any adequate remedy.” This led to him filing the lawsuit.
The plaintiff now wants OpenSea’s reimbursement for “the valuation and/or monetary damage over $1,000,000” he stated in the complaint.
“Plaintiff’s Bored Ape is of significant value. This is undeniable. Justin Bieber, for example, purchased Bored Ape #3001 at 500 ETH ($1.3 million at the time). According to the complaint, Bieber’s Bored Ape only has a rarity score 53.66 and a rarity rank #9777.”
Plaintiff’s Bored Ape currently has a rarity score (138.52) and a rarity rank (1392). It is a top 14% rarity and is much rarer than Bieber’s. According to the document, Plaintiff’s Bored Ape is worth a lot more than that and it will continue growing in value with each passing day.”
OpenSea reported today that the attack “no longer appears to be active”, but that it is “continuing to monitor” the platform and “it’s safe to migrate your listings now.”
