{"id":7829,"date":"2023-05-31T15:49:36","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T15:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/31\/ill-put-my-rep-on-the-line-to-say-this-is-for-real-the-pixel-penguins-scam-explained\/"},"modified":"2023-05-31T15:49:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T15:49:36","slug":"ill-put-my-rep-on-the-line-to-say-this-is-for-real-the-pixel-penguins-scam-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/31\/ill-put-my-rep-on-the-line-to-say-this-is-for-real-the-pixel-penguins-scam-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI&#8217;ll put my rep on the line to say this is for real\u201d &#8211; The Pixel Penguins Scam Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Pixel Penguins project provided a low point for Web3 yesterday.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>NFT influencers tweeted yesterday to ask for donations to help a project founder fight against cancer<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The NFT community rallied around her, minted out her project, and donated money to her cause<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>It turned out to be a scam<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_105407\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-105407\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/FxZaNQuXoAImRjw.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-105407\" src=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/FxZaNQuXoAImRjw.jpg.webp\" alt=\"Pixel Penguins turned out to be a scam\" width=\"1200\" height=\"555\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/FxZaNQuXoAImRjw.jpg.webp 3161w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/FxZaNQuXoAImRjw-300x139.jpg.webp 300w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/FxZaNQuXoAImRjw-1024x474.jpg.webp 1024w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/FxZaNQuXoAImRjw-768x355.jpg.webp 768w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/FxZaNQuXoAImRjw-121x56.jpg.webp 121w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/FxZaNQuXoAImRjw-150x69.jpg.webp 150w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/FxZaNQuXoAImRjw-450x208.jpg.webp 450w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/FxZaNQuXoAImRjw-1200x555.jpg.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-105407\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">You can\u2019t always trust a cute pixelated penguin, it turns out<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><span id=\"What_happened_with_the_Pixel_Penguins\"><strong>What happened with the Pixel Penguins?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Yesterday began with notable NFT influencers posting ETH addresses asking for donations. Viral sensation @3orovik tweeted out a donation address asking for funds to buy a new iPhone. After seeing him raise the money, the $<a href=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/from-comic-alt-right-symbol-to-meme-nft-to-viral-coin-the-pepe-journey\/?swcfpc=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PEPE<\/a> advocate and BAYC condemner <a href=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/yuga-labs-vs-ryder-ripps-azuki-founder-zagabond-gets-dragged-in\/?swcfpc=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@Pauly0x<\/a> created an ETH address linked to an ENS named YouGetNothing.eth and also asked for donations. As of this morning, he has received over 600 ETH.<\/p>\n<p>NFT and crypto Twitter both criticized the moves. Many community members asked why should we donate money to wealthy influencers when there are more deserving causes. A scammer picked up on the sentiment and immediately took advantage.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/who-is-andr3w-everything-about-nft-influencer-andrew-wang\/?swcfpc=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Andrew Wang<\/a>, another NFT influencer who went viral during Cool Cats mania, posted a Twitter thread about his artist friend Sarah struggling with cancer. Wang explained that she was suffering from lacrimal gland cancer and had lost an eye during her treatments. What\u2019s worse, Wang continued, is that her doctors recommended removing her other eye, but Sarah refused because she didn\u2019t want to stop making art.<\/p>\n<p>He guilt-tripped the Web3 space by asking if the same people who donated money to random influencers would also donate money to support a cancer patient. Wang then posted links to her collection, Pixel Penguins. He wrote that proceeds from the project would go towards Sarah\u2019s treatment. The project quickly minted out afterward as many in the NFT ecosystem viewed the situation as a feel-good story to rally around.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_105408\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-105408\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fxa7D4fXoAAgDf3.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-105408 perfmatters-lazy\" alt=\"Pixel Penguins founder turned out to be an art thief\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1296\" src=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fxa7D4fXoAAgDf3.png.webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fxa7D4fXoAAgDf3.png.webp 387w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fxa7D4fXoAAgDf3-278x300.png.webp 278w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fxa7D4fXoAAgDf3-52x56.png.webp 52w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fxa7D4fXoAAgDf3-150x162.png.webp 150w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-105408\" src=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fxa7D4fXoAAgDf3.png.webp\" alt=\"Pixel Penguins founder turned out to be an art thief\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fxa7D4fXoAAgDf3.png.webp 387w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fxa7D4fXoAAgDf3-278x300.png.webp 278w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fxa7D4fXoAAgDf3-52x56.png.webp 52w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fxa7D4fXoAAgDf3-150x162.png.webp 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-105408\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Web3 tried to do a nice thing yesterday and got scammed in return<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><span id=\"How_did_Pixel_Penguins_scam_people\"><strong>How did Pixel Penguins scam people?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>After the project was minted out, some people pointed out that \u201cSarah\u201d stole artwork from other artists. This finding immediately called the entire story into question. Sarah then deleted her Twitter account and vanished with 61 ETH.<\/p>\n<p>Apparently, the scammer employed similar techniques for a while. In 2021, the same account replied to NBA player <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stephen_Curry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Steph Curry<\/a> with a comment complaining about being in debt due to a family member\u2019s cancer treatments. Additionally, the account seems to have been social engineering Wang for months.<\/p>\n<p>Wang tweeted yesterday, \u201cI\u2019ll put my rep on the line to say this is for real amidst all the scams in our space. I speak with her art teacher often when she\u2019s gone for treatment and he says she\u2019s the best student he\u2019s ever had, that her talent is too precious, that she must survive. He cares like a father. And I can also say with confidence that she doesn\u2019t want a handout or be a sob story. I remember sending her eth one time for chemo, I thought she\u2019d thank me or whatever but she was upset \u2014 she said, if you care so much, why not just collect my art. lesson learned.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_105409\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-105409\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-105409 perfmatters-lazy\" alt=\"A scammer socially engineered Andrew Wang\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1312\" src=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a.jpeg.webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a.jpeg.webp 1389w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-274x300.jpeg.webp 274w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-936x1024.jpeg.webp 936w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-768x840.jpeg.webp 768w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-51x56.jpeg.webp 51w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-150x164.jpeg.webp 150w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-450x492.jpeg.webp 450w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-1200x1312.jpeg.webp 1200w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-105409\" src=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a.jpeg.webp\" alt=\"A scammer socially engineered Andrew Wang\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1312\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a.jpeg.webp 1389w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-274x300.jpeg.webp 274w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-936x1024.jpeg.webp 936w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-768x840.jpeg.webp 768w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-51x56.jpeg.webp 51w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-150x164.jpeg.webp 150w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-450x492.jpeg.webp 450w,  https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a-1200x1312.jpeg.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-105409\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andrew Wang unknowingly shilled a scammer\u2019s NFT project<br \/>Image Credit: Andrewwang.me<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After learning about the stolen art, Wang updated his tweets admitting his mistake. All in all, it was a real downer for the whole space yesterday, however. Just when we thought we had a nice story to feel good about, we were reminded that Web3 is still rife with scams and bad actors.<\/p>\n<p>Moving forward<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><iframe data-test-id=\"beehiiv-embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"320\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"border-radius: 4px; border: 2px solid #e5e7eb; margin: 0; background-color: transparent;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" data-src=\"https:\/\/embeds.beehiiv.com\/37fed65e-f01c-4c4c-b8f1-1b71da0be0a4\"><\/iframe><noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/embeds.beehiiv.com\/37fed65e-f01c-4c4c-b8f1-1b71da0be0a4\" data-test-id=\"beehiiv-embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"320\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"border-radius: 4px; border: 2px solid #e5e7eb; margin: 0; background-color: transparent;\"><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p>\n<div class=\"bottom-text__wrapper post-content\">\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><em>All investment\/financial opinions expressed by NFTevening.com are not recommendations.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This article is educational material.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>As always, make your own research prior to making any kind of investment.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/ill-put-my-rep-on-the-line-to-say-this-is-for-real-the-pixel-penguins-scam-explained\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pixel Penguins project provided a low point for Web3 yesterday. NFT influencers tweeted yesterday to ask for donations to help a project founder fight against cancer The NFT community rallied around her, minted out her project, and donated money to her cause It turned out to be a scam You can\u2019t always trust a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[9],"tags":[21],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nftevening.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/F4FBAD53-C1D7-4ACB-8643-D94C9DADF8C9_1_201_a.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}