Scammers posing as Forbes journalists have been targeting BAYC holders to set up interviews and
distract them while they attempt to steal their apes.
A Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) owner says he has managed to avoid a potentially “dreadful day”
after being asked to retrieve a banana for a photo from someone they initially believed was interviewing them for Forbes.
On Nov. 27, NFT collector ‘Crumz’ detailed his run-in with a scammer posing as a Forbes journalist.
He reported that someone pretending to be Robert LaFanco — a real Forbes editor, contacted him by
direct message from an impersonator account with the offer of an interview for a new article about BAYCs.
During the interview, the scammer prompted Crumz to click a “button” to allow access to record the
interview. Crumz said he complied with the so-called journalists despite certain red flags,
including their use of a non-premium Zoom account and wanting to use a separate recorder bot to record his screen.
“I had to press a button to allow access to record,” he said before adding, “I didn’t think much of it first
but at the end, he asks me to say something that resembles my ape and he suggests a banana.”
‘Crumz’ said he later realized this was a distraction attempt to take him away from his computer during
which the attacker would take control of his computer to steal his assets.
‘Crumz’ said instead of getting the banana, he waited by his computer and sure enough,
the scammers started to control his screen.
“I mute my screen and there’s no video and just waited by the screen and sure enough they started to
control my screen, I stopped them when they went on delegate.cash.”
