OpenSea NFT Gifting Feature Poses Threats of NFT Scams

The downfall of this feature came into light when twitter handles pointed out it is ‘allegedly’ used to make it look like NFT influencers were buying NFTs.

Written By:
Ritu Lavania

Last updated: August 3, 2022 1:28 PM

Published August 3, 2022 1:28 PM

Last updated: August 3, 2022 1:28 PM

Published August 3, 2022 1:28 PM

The latest ‘gifting’ feature on popular NFT marketplace OpenSea has confused users over ‘mislabeled’ transactions as this can pose threats of NFT scams. The new feature can prove to be a potential exploiting tool by NFT scammers.

NFTs can now be sent directly to any wallet on OpenSea just in a single transaction. Thus, buyers can purchase an NFT with Ethereum from one wallet and deliver the fungible-token to another wallet during the trading process. The feature was meant to save users’ gas, as per OpenSea.

However, what comes off as a huge catch is that some third-party wallet trackers make the gift receiver look like the actual buyer who bought the NFT for themselves. For the uninitiated, third- party wallet trackers are trading apps that track NFT trades of influencers and celebrities. The feature could thus be an instrument for carrying out NFT scams.

Also Read: The 10 Most Common NFT Scams and Techniques to Avoid Them

A Twitter post from Metaverse HQ’s pseudonymous founder “JakeandBake” reveals that this feature is already being used by miscreants. Yes, the feature is allegedly used to make it look like NFT influencers like Gary Vaynerchuk and Pranksy are buying NFTs from several collections.

Opensea implemented a new feature and it's being exploited.

You can buy an item on behalf of a different wallet address.

People are buying on behalf of @garyvee, @pranksy, and other influencers. Wallet trackers show it as them buying the NFT themselves. Then people fomo in. 🤦‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/2h0JLb2x0n
— Jake (@JakeAndBakeNFT) July 31, 2022

The mischievous act was first brought to light by Twitter accounts- brawlers42 & GrapeDutch619.

Gary came up with a response to this and said that he hopes that this issue is addressed so people don’t get fooled.

OpenSea has responded to these tweets by saying that the activity feed and API can differentiate between normal purchases and purchases for another wallet by following ways:

‘Purchase for another wallet’ transactions have different ‘receiving’ wallets for the sale and transfer event.
‘Normal’ transactions have the same ‘receiving’ wallet for the sale and the transfer event.

Acknowledging the flagging by the aforementioned twitter handles, OpenSea further tweeted, “We could have done a better job giving 3rd party apps & developers a heads up, as this requires a tweak to the way they display transaction data. We’re doing this work now.”