The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized two non-fungible tokens (NFT) worth more than $100,000 and 86.5 Ether (ETH) from a reported phishing scammer.
The alleged fraud, Chase Senecal – known as Horror (HZ) online – was initially exposed through a lengthy investigation by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT. sent back in September.
In an official FBI notice sent on February 3, it states that the Seneca property – which also includes an Audemars Piguet (AP) Royal Oak Watch worth $41,000 – was “seized for federal forfeiture for violating federal law.”
The FBI news release did not reveal much other information about the ordeal, other than that all of the property was seized on October 24. Specific NFTs include Bosen Ape Yacht Club #9658, and Doodle #3114 and are priced at $95,495 and $9,361 respectively. time to fight.
86.5 ETH was worth $116,433 when it was held, but is currently worth $144,000 at the time of writing.
It is not clear what the scope of legal proceedings against Senecal is at this stage. However, according to the FBI’s law enforcement bulletin, federal forfeiture is a law enforcement tool that allows the government to “remove — without compensation to individuals — ownership of property involved in a crime.”
“It may occur in a civil procedure, such as a lawsuit against the item, or after an individual has been convicted in a criminal court,” the FBI said.
While the FBI has yet to come out with an official tip of the hat to ZachXBT, the on-chain sleuth noted via Twitter on February 3 that the property seizure “came as a result” of the investigation.
2/ HZ is responsible for using the Twitter panel to take over such accounts @Zeneca @nounsdao @ezu_xyz @deekaymotion @JRNYclub as well as Discord server attacks @AnataNFT @Lacoste
The thread that started it all I have attached below. https://t.co/6dsfZ5jnGl pic.twitter.com/8EYl1yuIik
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 3, 2023
“I hope to see more phishing scammers suffer the same fate in the future as they have ruined so many people on this site,” ZachXBT wrote.
With Bored Ape’s NFT seizure, people in the community joked that the FBI would change their profile picture to Ape #9658.
In particular, the glowing AP watch was one of the key identifiers that helped ZachXBT unravel Senecal’s identity and on-chain activities during the investigation.
In a medium post from September 2, ZachXBT explained that after seeing Horroz (HZ) bragging about a new watch on social media, he asked “around some friends who sell watches” and finally got in touch with someone who sold a certain AP watch for Senecal .
Unfortunately for Senecal, the payment has been made on the blockchain through the use of USD Coin (USDC).
“The HZ address used to pay the watch seller $47.5k was funded DIRECTLY from multiple addresses used to scam people whose Twitter accounts were hacked such as @deekaymotion, @Zeneca_33, @ezu_xyz, [and] @JRNYclub,” ZachXBT wrote.
This is not the first time ZachXBT’s research has played an important role in helping government authorities. In October, France’s national cyber unit cited ZachXBT’s work to help catch and charge a group of fraudsters who allegedly stole $2.5 million in NFTs through a phishing scam.