SOUFIANE OULAHYANE, Cryptocurrency Spoofing, New York 2021

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Man Arrested for OpenSea NFT, Cryptocurrency Heist

SOUFIANE OULAHYANE, a/k/a ‘Soufiane Oulahya,’ has been charged with theft of cryptocurrency and NFTs through spoofing of OpenSea marketplace, officials announced on Wednesday.

The indictment, unsealed in Manhattan federal court, alleges that OULAHYANE engaged in a scheme to ‘spoof’ the login page to the OpenSea marketplace, the first and largest NFT marketplace.

Through paid advertisements on a popular search engine, OULAHYANE caused his spoofed version of OpenSea to appear first in search results for ‘opensea.’ The spoofed website was purposefully designed to look like the legitimate OpenSea login page in order to trick unsuspecting victims into thinking they were interfacing with the real OpenSea marketplace.

On or about September 26, 2021, a Manhattan-based victim (‘Victim-1’) used a popular search engine to search for ‘opensea.’ That search yielded a link that, unbeknownst to Victim-1, connected to OULAHYANE’s spoofed version of the OpenSea login page.

Believing that the spoofed website was the legitimate OpenSea website, Victim-1 entered the seed phrase to their cryptocurrency wallet. By doing this, Victim-1 unwittingly transferred their seed phrase to OULAHYANE, giving access to Victim-1’s cryptocurrency wallet.

Almost immediately, OULAHYANE used Victim-1’s seed phrase to obtain unauthorized access to Victim-1’s cryptocurrency wallet. OULAHYANE then transferred the cryptocurrency from Victim-1’s wallet to another cryptocurrency wallet outside of Victim-1’s control.

In total, OULAHYANE stole approximately $450,000 worth of cryptocurrency and NFTs from Victim-1, including an NFT from the ‘Bored Ape Yacht Club’ series, sold for approximately 49 ETH, and an NFT from the ‘Meebit’ series, sold for approximately 9.88 ETH.

OULAHYANE is currently in custody in Morocco for domestic Moroccan charges.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, ‘As alleged, Soufiane Oulahyane used a common cybercrime technique to steal victim cryptocurrency and NFTs. ‘Spoofing’ is one of the oldest tricks in the criminal playbook. Oulahyane adapted this old tool for use in a new and developing arena – the crypto space.’

FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge Christie M. Curtis said, ‘Oulahyane is alleged to have operated a spoof website to gain unauthorized access to victims’ cryptocurrency wallets to steal their cryptocurrency and NFTs.’