The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized two non-fungible tokens (NFTs) worth more than $100,000 and 86.5 Ether (ETH) from a reported phishing scammer.
The alleged scammer in question, Chase Senecal—known online as Horror (HZ)—was initially unmasked through lengthy investigation by independent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT published in September.
The official FBI notification released on February 3 indicated that Seneca’s property — which also included an Audemars Piguet (AP) Royal Oak watch valued at $41,000 — had been “seized for federal forfeiture for violation of federal law”.
The FBI notification did not detail much more information about the case, other than noting that all the assets were seized on October 24. Specific NFTs include the Bored Ape Yacht Club #9658, and Doodle #3114 and were valued at $95,495 and $9,361 respectively at the time of seizure.
The 86.5 ETH was valued at $116,433 at the time of the seizure, but is now worth $144,000 as of this writing.
It is unclear what the full scope of legal proceedings have been brought against Senecal at this time.. However, according to the FBI police bulletin, federal forfeiture is a law enforcement tool that allows the government to “remove—without compensation to the individual—ownership of property implicated in a crime.”
“It can occur in a civil proceeding, such as a lawsuit against the object, or after the conviction of an individual in a criminal trial,” the FBI states.
Although the FBI has not given official recognition to ZachXBTthe on-chain sleuth noted via Twitter on February 3 that the seizure of the property “was a result” of his investigation.
2/ HZ was responsible for using a Twitter panel to take over accounts like @Zeneca @nounsdao @ezu_xyz @deekaymotion @JRNYclub as well as Discord server attacks @AnataNFT @Lacoste
The thread which started it all I’ve attached below. https://t.co/6dsfZ5jnGl pic.twitter.com/8EYl1yuIik
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 3, 2023
2/ HZ was responsible for using a Twitter panel to take over accounts such as @Zeneca @nounsdao @ezu_xyz @deekaymotion @JRNYclub, as well as attacks on the Discord server @AnataNFT @Lacoste
The thread that started it all attached in the link.
“I hope to see more phishing scammers suffer a similar fate in the future for hurting so many people in this space,” ZachXBT wrote.
With the seizure of a Bored Ape NFT, people in the community have joked that the FBI will change their profile picture to Ape #9658.
Notably the flashy AP clock was one of the key identifiers that helped ZachXBT unmask Senecal’s identity and their on-chain activity during the investigation.
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In a Medium post on September 2, ZachXBT explained that after seeing Horroz (HZ) show off the new watch on social media, he asked “some mutual friends who sell watches” and eventually managed to get in touch with the person who sold that specific AP watch to Senecal.
Unfortunately for Senecal, the payment was said to have been made on the blockchain by using USD Coin (USDC).
“The address HZ used to pay the seller of the $47,500 watch was DIRECTLY funded by multiple addresses used to scam people with hacked Twitter accounts like @deekaymotion, @Zeneca_33, @ezu_xyz, [y] @JRNYclub,” ZachXBT wrote.
It is not the first time that ZachXBT’s research has played a key role in helping government authorities. In October, France’s national cyber unit cited the work of ZachXBT to help capture and charge a group of suspected fraudsters suspected of stealing $2.5 million worth of NFTs using phishing scams.
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