Police were unable to recover his money, although they did seize around 40 websites that were spoofing various real NFT marketplaces.
85-year-old painter loses life savings to NFT art dealer scam
An 85-year-old painter from Brooklyn was convinced to send scammers $135,000 after they promised they would sell his artwork as NFTs on OpenSea. After agreeing to have a supposed "art dealer" list and sell his artwork, the man was told he'd earned $300,000. But there was a catch: he would have to pay nearly half that amount in "fees" to get access to his windfall. The man liquidated his retirement, made credit card payments, and took out a personal loan to acquire cryptocurrency for the supposed fees, only to later realize he'd been duped.
- "Brooklyn District Attorney Shuts Down 40 Domains Associated With NFT Crypto Scam Targeting Artists, After Brooklyn Painter Lost Over $135,00", "Kings County District Attorney's Office" [archive]