Seth Green has Been a Victim of an NFT Phishing Scam

This month, actor and producer Seth Green was victimized by a phishing scam, which resulted in the loss of numerous NFTs and unintentionally disrupted the production schedule for his next animated series. The next play was produced from characters in Seth Green’s extensive NFT collection; nevertheless, in light of the current attack, the project’s unabashed optimism towards cryptocurrency has become a cruelly ironic reminder of the industry’s seedier side.

At the NFT conference VeeCon on Saturday, Seth Green gave attendees a sneak peek at the upcoming trailer for White Horse Tavern. The show is a cheesy comedy, and it looks as if it is predicated on the premise, “What if your friendly local bartender was Bored Ape Yacht Club #8398?” Green expressed his desire to envisage a world in which “it doesn’t matter what you look like, what only counts is your attitude,” during an interview with Gary Vaynerchuk, an entrepreneur and crypto hype guy. Seth Green claimed that he wanted to create a world where “it doesn’t matter what you look like.”

.@SethGreen new trailer for his new show, keep your eyes peeled👀@BoredApeYC @GutterCatGang @veefriends pic.twitter.com/ZzYN87HYWA

— FFVV1211.eth (@FFVV1211) May 21, 2022

 

Copyright law is also an important consideration, which is unfortunate for Green. And when the actor’s NFT collection was stolen by a con artist at the beginning of May, he lost the commercial rights to his show’s cartoon protagonist, a scruffy boar called Fred Simian. Someone else now owns the likeness and use rights to Fred Simian.

Green informed Vaynerchuk, “I got that ape in July 2021, and I’ve spent the past few months cultivating and marketing the IP to turn it become the star of this show.” Green was referring to the ape’s intellectual property. “Then, in the days before — by the way, his name is Fred — in the days before he is scheduled to make his debut in front of the whole world, he is abducted.”

 

Green’s Assets have been Flipped

On May 8, a phishing effort perpetrated by an unknown con artist resulted in the theft of four of Green’s NFTs. Green lamented his “stolen” assets on Twitter, where he announced the loss of a Bored Ape, two Mutant Apes, and a Doodle. These assets were transferred out of Green’s wallet after he unknowingly interacted with a phishing site. Green’s assets were “stolen.” Green lamented his “stolen” assets on Twitter.

According to Motherboard, one of the Mutant Apes was sold for an amount equal to $42,000. According to the transaction ledgers, the con artist also sold the Bored Ape to an anonymous collector who goes by the alias “DarkWing84.” This collector paid more than $200,000 for the ape. The GBE Vault is the current location of the NFT after it was hastily moved there after its first placement in the collection known as “GBE.”

Daniel Dubin, a tax and litigation attorney at Alston & Bird LLP, said that if the current owner “wanted to cause trouble for Seth Green, they probably could because that person becomes the holder” of the commercial usage rights. “If the current owner wanted to cause trouble for Seth Green, they probably could.”

According to Dubin, the NFT copyright legislation may be “a particularly complex subject,” and its validity in the courtroom has only just started to be challenged. A growing number of NFT projects are granting owners the right to commercially adapt their works, which has been an effective strategy for increasing brand visibility but has consequently introduced a host of legal disputes. While this strategy has been useful for increasing brand visibility, it has also introduced a host of legal disputes. This led to an explosion of Bored Ape products and imitation NFT collections, but it also paved the way for contentious copyright disputes. Bored Ape Yacht Club was among the first to use these phrases.

Seth Green has spent the better part of the past several days tweeting @ DarkWing84 in an effort to regain the Bored Ape. He reiterated his request for them to “work things out between us” on Monday. It would seem that Green is aware of the potential issues that his ape’s new owner may pose. Even DarkWing84 received a message from a Green fan, which was delivered to him by means of an ENS domain that spells out “contactsethgreenontwitter.eth.” It is not apparent if DarkWing84 was aware that the ape had been acquired illegally when they bought it.

Seth Green’s Response on Twitter on Commercial Rights

After this news item gained widespread attention, Seth Green provided a response on Twitter to charges about the implications of the missing ape for the continuation of his program.

Not true since the art was stolen. A buyer who purchased stolen art with real money and refuses to return it is not legally entitled to exploitation usage of the underlying IP. It’ll go to court, but I’d prefer to meet @DarkWing84 before that. Seems we’d have lots in common.

— Seth Green (@SethGreen) May 24, 2022

The NFT marketplace OpenSea has announced that it has frozen the tokens, just as it has done in the past when users have claimed that their funds have been stolen. Warnings about “strange behaviour” have been added to each of the four NFTs that were obtained from Seth Green.

However, we do disable the ability to use OpenSea to buy or sell stolen items, as stated by Allie Mack, a spokesperson for OpenSea. “We do not have the power to freeze or delist NFTs that exist on decentralized blockchains,” Mack said. “We do disable the ability to use OpenSea to buy or sell stolen items.” There are already three lawsuits being filed against OpenSea by NFT owners who have lost their Bored Apes as a result of identical phishing assaults.

Because NFTs are not tangible objects, “it’s exciting to envision the numerous ways that IP rights might be impacted and the interesting new IP difficulties that can come from the fact,” said Dubin. “It’s also interesting to think the interesting new IP issues that can arise from the fact.” “I believe that we are only scraping the surface here.”

Green has hypothesized that the attack could have been the work of “a person, a foreign financial conglomerate, or some massive scam house somewhere,” but he has assuaged the concerns of the attendees of VeeCon by reassuring them that he is cooperating with the authorities in order to retrieve his NFTs. “Guys, if there’s a door to kick in, you can count on me to do it for us,” the speaker said. “I guarantee.”

Also read: Seth Green Loses $200K Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT in Phishing Scam