The non-fungible token (NFT) market Magic Eden has promised to refund all users who were tricked into buying fake NFTs on their website as a result of an exploit.
In a statement released on January 4, the company claims that a bug in its “activity indexer,” recently implemented for its Snappy Marketplace and Pro Trade tools, allowed fake NFTs to bypass verification and appear alongside collections of genuine NFTs.
Magic Eden claims that the ruling has caused 25 fraudulent NFTs to be sold across four sets in the last 24 hours, but it is confirming if other NFTs have been affected beyond the last day.
Two of the affected projects were the ABC and y00ts collections, Solana-based, popular and high-priced.
Don’t buy these @y00tsNFT on @MagicEdenthey are fake!
Basically, every single collection is fake on Magiceden, a massive exploit is happening ongoing.
High-value NFTs are suffering the most, as attackers choose to exploit higher-value NFTs first. pic.twitter.com/35RYHOKVxd
— HGE.SOL♂️ (@HGESOL) January 4, 2023
Don’t buy these @y00tsNFT at @MagicEden, they are fake! Basically every collection is fake in Magiceden; a massive exploit is happening. High-value NFTs are suffering the most, as attackers choose to exploit these NFTs first.
The NFT platform said it has fixed the issue by temporarily disabling both tools and removing “entry points” that allowed unverified NFTs to pass through.
It has also asked users to perform a “hard refresh” to ensure that unverified listings no longer appear in their browser session and to close the purchase of unverified NFTs. As a precautionary measure.
“Magic Eden is safe for trade and we will be refunding all users who mistakenly purchased unverified NFTs specifically due to this issue,” he wrote.
Earlier today, unverified NFTs were being shown as part of verified collections on ME. In the last day, impact was contained to 25 unverified NFTs sold in 4 collections.
We’ve resolved the issue and will refund those affected. Now, no one can buy unverified NFTs on ME.
—Magic Eden (@MagicEden) January 4, 2023
Earlier today, unverified NFTs were showing up as part of verified collections on ME. In the last day, the impact was limited to 25 unverified NFTs sold in 4 collections. We have resolved the issue and will reimburse those affected. Now no one can buy unverified NFTs on ME.
magic eden sounded the alarm for the first time about fraudulent NFTs in a Twitter post on January 4, citing community reports that people were able to buy fake ABC NFTs. At the time, he said that he had added “verification layers” in an attempt to solve the problem.
Following the announcement, Twitter users continued to raise the alarm about fake y00ts NFTs. that invaded the platform. A screenshot from “HGE”, creator of ABC, showed at least two sales worth 100 solanas (SOL) each, a total amount of about USD 2,600.
DeGods, the creator of y00ts, too tweeted to his followers that an exploit existed in Magic Eden that allowed unverified NFTs to be listed as part of the set.
There is currently an exploit on Magic Eden allowing for unverified NFT’s to be listed as part of the collection
You can verify if an NFT is part of the collection on our explore page linked below
If it’s not in our explorer, it’s not our NFThttps://t.co/c4HKIJJD1n
— DeGods III (@DeGodsNFT) January 4, 2023
There is currently an exploit in Magic Eden that allows unverified NFTs to be listed as part of the collection. You can check if an NFT is part of the collection on our browse page linked below. If it’s not in our browser, it’s not our NFT.
The latest exploit is already the second incident that Magic Eden users have had to go through this week.
On January 3, the market was filled with obscene images and the TV series The Big Bang Theory.
Magic Eden said that a third-party image hosting provider had been “compromised”, leading to exposure to the “nasty images”, and reassured users that their NFTs were safe.
Cointelegraph reached out to Magic Eden for comment on the situation, but did not immediately hear back.
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