Oh crap! Your heart is racing, body is warm and panic starts to arise. You’ve realized you have just clicked and “approved-all” a malicious drain-all contract. Your mind starts to race, “What have I done?” “Why didn’t I notice before and ignore all the signs?” It’s a scary place to be, your favorite NFT's, most prized digital collections have vanished from your wallet and into a random wallet.
What can be done?
Where do you go?
Who do you talk to?
Luckily for you, you're at the right place! Although Boring Security cannot aid you in recovering your lost assets, there are provided steps you can take to prevent further damage, and also resources to educate yourself in certain situations like this. Not all hacks or scams are the same, most very different with common denominators like how the scam works or the people associated to it. If you ever, find yourself in this situation (I sincerely hope not) hopefully this could be useful to you.
(Please note, If your wallet seed is compromised, or even if it might be, might as well make a new fresh wallet.)
- Revoke.cash to revoke perms of suspicious/unknown approvals.
Use this site to revoke any and all permissions you don’t recognize. It does cost gas to do so but if you move fast enough you might be able to save some assets.
- Transfer any valuables (NFTs/coin tokens) left to a new account or one of a trustworthy person to keep the assets safe until further decisions on your behalf.
Sometimes you’ll notice your being drained right in the middle of it. Another way to combat against the scammer/hacker is to send your assets to a trusted wallet where nothing is approved and safe. Please make sure it’s really the trusted community member. Even better, ask a fellow friend just in case something like this happens to you.
- Contact OpenSea to freeze any items that have been stolen (transferred/sold).
OpenSea will ask for some information so be prepared to assist with that. They’ll probably ask you to file a police report as well for documentation purposes. Unfortunately, any crypto sent is gone. There's no way of recovering or reverting those transactions. It does suck for future buyers, but it gives you a buffered time to get things together and plan your next moves for a short period of time.
- It may be hard but try to remain calm because more mistakes can be made when you’re frustrated or even in a moment or panic.
Due the nature of the blockchain it’s nearly impossible to get stolen assets back. Many have tried and very few have gotten supremely lucky to get 1 item back if anything at all. Many will try to further scam you by making it sound like they can “recover” your stolen assets for a “fee”, thus praying deeper on hopeful victims. Be wary of these.
- Try to keep tabs on where your stolen items have gone.
This in important in case you’re intend to attempt recovering the assets or buying them back. The success rate of this is nearly impossible though. There is no reverse button on the blockchain unfortunately.
- Mistakes happen in this space frequently, don’t be too hard on yourself.
Take a step back and re-evaluate your next steps but definitely get some fresh air to gather your thoughts. Try to look forward and plan ahead for your next steps.
- If your thoughts get too dark, definitely seek professional help.
People on the internet might not be the best for logical answers in your situation. You’re not alone. It can happen to anyone.
Being a moderator at one of the biggest discords out there, the Bored Apes discord, I’ve seen a good share of apes being stolen. Being that we hold these prized apes makes us big targets but the point is that if it’s worth enough, YOU can be targeted too. As long as we’re worth something we’ll be targeted so stay ahead by educating yourself and hopefully others too. Maybe bookmark this page. Copy and paste this somewhere in your notes. So you’ll at least have something to look back to if your ever in this unlucky situation. There’s no specific order these steps have to be taken but as long as you’re able to, use any of these tips to stop any future losses.
Stay safe out there!