Seth Green revealed that last weekend that he was the victim of a robbery, not of his phone or wallet, but he lost several NFTs, including a BoredApe that was the star of an upcoming animated series. Green first announced the loss of his tokens last weekend with a plea to one of the purchasers of his “stolen ape,” to get in contact with him.
The actor admits in the tweet he fell victim to “phishing,” which is the practice of sending fraudulent emails and messages pretending to be reputable companies or individuals in order to get victims to reveal personal or financial information to them. Phishing scams have become more elaborate as of late, and Green said he was tricked by a phish that copied the layout of the NFT website GutterCats.
The series, which currently has the name White Horse Tavern, premiered its first trailer at the Crypto convention VeeCon and features a combined cast of live-action actors and animated NFTs standing with them Who Framed Roger Rabbit?-style. During VeeCon, Green explained that he purchased the “Fred Simian” NFT in July of last year and has been developing the show since. “Days before he’s set to make his world debut, he’s literally kidnapped,” Green added.
Green has made several pleas to his sweet Ape Fred’s new owner, Twitter user @DarkWing84. The user has not yet responded publicly to Green but did provide comments to BuzzFeed. He said “I have no plans for the ape,” and mentioned that the NFT, “was not marked as suspicious so I bought it in good faith.” He did express a desire to talk with Green multiple times in his interview.
NFT Marketplace OpenSea has announced that Green’s NFTs are now frozen and marked with “suspicious activity,” labels. They also clarified their capabilities as a service by saying: “We do not have the power to freeze or delist NFTs that exist on decentralized blockchains; however, we do disable the ability to use OpenSea to buy or sell stolen items.”
Some have theorized that without being the sole owner of the Fred Simian IP, Green is no longer allowed to commercially release White Horse Tavern, and the project is effectively dead in the water unless Green can negotiate a release. Green himself went online to dispute one article’s claim that his series is stalled, and wrote, “A buyer who purchased stolen art with real money and refuses to return it is not legally entitled to exploitation usage of the underlying IP.”
