Seth Green is having a bad time after he claims some of his NFT apes were stolen from him using a phishing scam. One very special ape in particular was taken and then sold to another user, which is bad news for him because Green planned and created an entire new TV show starring that digital ape NFT. Now that he no longer owns it or the rights to it, that TV show might be dead.
Famous (?) comedian, actor, and NFT buyer, Seth Green claimed on May 8 that an anonymous scammer stole some of his NFTs via a phishing scheme. On Twitter, Green broke the news of his stolen and resold NFT assets. The scammer grabbed a Bored Ape, two Mutant Apes, and a Doodle. The assets were ripped from Green’s wallet after he accidentally interacted with a scam site.
And as reported by Buzzfeed, this could cause some major problems for the actor who, since July 2021, had been creating a whole live-action TV show based on some of his NFTs. The show is planned to star Bored Ape #8398, who Green had named Fred, as a bartender.
“[I] have spent the last several months developing and exploiting the IP to make it into the star of this show,” Green said in an interview on May 21, “Then days before — his name is Fred by the way — days before he’s set to make his world debut, he’s literally kidnapped.”
During that same event where he was interviewed on stage, he debuted the first trailer for the show which looks about as funny and interesting as I expected a show about NFTs living in the real would be. (Which is to say, it looks pretty terrible…) Though if Green will even be able to finish and release the show is up for debate.
Buzzfeed talked to an intellectual property attorney about the situation and it’s not looking great for Seth.
According to that legal expert, the current owner and holder of the ape known as Fred could cause a lot of trouble for the actor because they now own the commercial usage rights for the artwork attached to that NFT. Some of this is of course speculation, as NFTs are still relatively new and the courts, like many others out there, are still trying to understand just what they are and how they work. But it is true that a lot of NFT projects are granting owners the rights to commercially adapt and profit from the art they currently own. Bored Ape Yacht Club, where Seth Green bought Fred from, was one of the first large-scale NFT projects to enact such rights usages to owners.
So, it seems that if Green wants to keep making his NFT TV show, he’ll need to regain ownership and control of his stolen NFTs, especially his main star, Fred. And Green appears to know this as he has spent the last few weeks since the scam happened tweeting to the ape’s current owner, DarkWing84. It’s not known yet if the user knew the ape was stolen.
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NFT marketplace OpenSea has flagged the NFTs with suspicious activity warnings, which is odd considering the whole idea behind NFTs was to not rely on centralized groups or organizations to control the economy. But rich people don’t like getting scammed and NFT companies need to keep those whales happy if this scam is to survive another month or two. So…now if you try to buy the stolen NFTs, you’ll see a warning message.
As for Green, he’s not giving up on Fred. During the previously mentioned interview, which was watched by other NFT lovers and fans, the actor stressed he was going to work hard to save Fred from his current kidnappers.
“Guys, if there’s a door to kick in, I promise I’m gonna kick in the door for us.” Better hurry Green, the door, house, and entire city that makes up the NFT marketplace is probably a few months away from just collapsing into cyber dust and tears.
Which is a shame. I’ll miss all the idiots getting scammed over and over and over again.