The NFT marketplace will no longer provide customer service via Discord DMs.
OpenSea, a nonfungible tokens (NFTs) platform, launched a server on Metalink on Tuesday to provide verified owners of its collections with a direct conduit for support, comments, and updates. Furthermore, OpenSea stated that it would no longer provide customer help via Discord DMs. Metalink is a collaboration software for NFT communities that allows users to check the value of their collections and watch the corresponding real-time transaction flow. Furthermore, Metalink channels are token-gated, which means that evidence of ownership of an NFT or social token is necessary to access content.
According to OpenSea, the platform is making the change as a result of fraudsters impersonating help partners on its Discord website. @seanbonner, a crypto enthusiast, writes:
“[It happens like this,] People go to the OpenSea Discord and post their support tickets. Meanwhile, attackers monitor these channels and then contact people [via DMs] posing as OpenSea support, armed with info about their support claim [to conduct scams].”
Stevey Tromberg, Head of Community at OpenSea, noted in a statement addressed to the Metalink community this morning:
“Our goal is to create a direct channel for you to interact with OpenSea to get support, offer feedback, receive updates, and share any other information that will help us better serve you. We will have dedicated community support staff from OpenSea spending a few hours a day in Metalink. All of whom will be marked as verified OpenSea staff [throughout the Metalink platform].”
Tromberg indicated that the onboarding process would begin gradually, beginning with Cryptopunks owners, then Bored Apes, World of Women, and others. “It’s tough to feel safe on other chat platforms without message requests, the opportunity to see who owns particular NFTs, or seamless verification,” he concluded.
In the last year, blockchain projects have migrated en masse to social platforms such as Discord in order to better engage with their increasing populations. However, there has been an increase in the number of scammers that use advanced tactics to steal cryptocurrency fans’ assets. In one famous case, the Hong Kong NFT project Monkey Kingdom lost $1.3 million when hackers initially compromised Grape, a popular software for validating users on Solana (SOL).
They used the vulnerability to take over an administrative account from the Money Kingdom staff, which then posted a phishing link on the Monkey Kingdom Discord’s announcement channel. Some customers who clicked on the link connected their wallet to a bogus website, believing they were purchasing NFTs for a forthcoming drop, only to be robbed of their funds.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
