The most outrageous scams in the NFT world often aren’t caused by contract vulnerabilities. They’re the ones that go, “He’s such a nice guy, everyone, let’s help him out.”
A while back, Tezos artist Rudiantfrog (also known as Majesty88) posted photos of himself in a hospital bed and talked about battling cancer. Friends in the community rallied to his support: some donated XTZ directly, some—like NESAART—sold their own works to raise money for him, and someone even put up for auction a piece about his “journey battling cancer.”
Then people in the community reverse-image-searched the hospital photos and ran AI-detection checks, pointing out that the pictures were either AI-generated or unrelated images that had already been online. The account has since been deleted, and he hasn’t responded.
Put simply, nobody verified a thing from start to finish. Look through his replies, and for the entire month of October it’s just “gm Majesty88” and “have a beautiful day fam.” Familiar faces who exchanged good-morning messages every day were mistaken for proof of trustworthiness. Following each other and saying “gm” every day doesn’t mean you know someone.
The worst part is who pays the price: when creators who are genuinely ill ask for help in the future, the first reaction will be suspicion. Goodwill in a community can be used up—and when it is, everyone pays for it.
Asking for proof before giving money isn’t heartless. Getting scammed and then helping spread “Everyone, stop attacking him”—that’s what fuels the next scam.
#NFT #Tezos