Jay Chou says his Bored Ape NFT was stolen: “This was not an April Fool’s joke”

Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou says he had his Bored Ape non-fungible token (NFT) stolen from him on April Fool’s Day.

The Mandopop sstar took to Instagram that day to share the news, writing that a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT that had been gifted to him by a friend was “stolen” by a phishing website.

He went on to say that he initially thought it was an April Fool’s prank being played on him, but clarified that it wasn’t a joke, and that the NFT was “gone”. The pop star, whose fashion brand launched its own ‘Phanta Bears’ NFTs to great reception in January, also added hashtags urging his followers to be alert: “Everybody be careful” and “This was not an April Fool’s joke”.

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A post shared by Jay Chou 周杰倫 (@jaychou)

According to online platform LooksRare, the NFT was last sold at the value of 155 ether (ETH), which roughly equates to around S$734,565. The NFT is that of a pink-furred ape with angry eyes, a red-starred stunt jacket and diamond teeth.

Singaporean rapper Yung Raja shared a similar incident in mid-March, saying that he lost some NFTs after he clicked on a “convincing” scam link. “It was all so convincing,” he wrote, “these scammers are getting smarter at trying to get you to click that link.”

In January, scammers marred the launch of Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘CryptoBatz’ NFT, reportedly setting up a faker Discord server to defraud supporters of their cryptocurrency.

Chou’s own foray into NFTs saw his fashion brand PHANTACi launch 10,000 ‘Phanta Bears’, tokens featuring cartoon bears that wore clothing designed by the brand. They reportedly sold out within 40 minutes in January and for over US$10million in cryptocurrency.

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