An 85-year-old painter from Brooklyn was convinced to send scammers $135,000 after they promised they would sell his artwork as NFTs on OpenSea. After agreeing to have a supposed “art dealer” list and sell his artwork, the man was told he’d earned $300,000. But there was a catch: he would have to pay nearly half that amount in “fees” to get access to his windfall. The man liquidated his retirement, made credit card payments, and took out a personal loan to acquire cryptocurrency for the supposed fees, only to later realize he’d been duped.Police were unable to recover his money, although they did seize around 40 websites that were spoofing various real NFT marketplaces.

Total loss estimated at $135,000.