NFT Charity Scam: Here’s What Happened
By Lesia Dubenko
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Beware of Twitter influencers even if the project they promote is for a good cause. This is the case with Pixel Penguins, an NFT charity scam.
It all started last Tuesday.
Web3 influencer Andrew Wang posted a Twitter thread, promoting the story of his “friend” Sarah who, according to him, was battling cancer and thus needed to foot hefty medical bills.
The tweet that has now been removed read: “I woke up today to see one of my friends trending on twitter, @Hopeexist1. she made a collection to help herself battle cancer and some awesome web3 people spotlighted her today, so i'd like to add to it”.
In that thread, he made several major statements such as that he is ready to put his reputation on the line to “say this is for real amidst all the scams in our space,” said Wang. “I speak with her art teacher often when she's gone for treatment and he says she's the best student he's ever had, that her talent is too precious, that she must survive.”
As a result, Wang suggested that the community help her by minting NFTs called Pixel Penguins.
The strategy turned out to be both successful and prolific, with many users ending up minting the designs. Shortly after the thread, Pixel Penguins sold out and began to trend on OpenSea. The collection is still available.
Pixel Penguin’s collection on OpenSea. Source: Pixel Penguin’s OpenSea Page
However, it soon turned out that the woman who claimed to be Sarah was far from being honest. Some of the users pointed out that back in 2021 she tried selling stolen artwork.
Shortly after the person disappeared altogether, proving that the Pixel Penguin scam was indeed an NFT scam. The story of her cancer battle was also possibly made-up.
As a result, there was a serious community backlash. Different people were
accusing Wang of providing false information that tricked them into believing that Sarah indeed needed help.
After some time Wang broke the silence and apologized for his actions claiming that he was fooled too into believing the story. While he said that he feels immensely bad about what happened, he also said that “he didn't have the proper wisdom to navigate something like this.”
Not everyone bought this story as Wang did not explain how come a friend, who effectively turned out to be a stranger, made him believe that it’s worse putting his reputation on the line. He likewise did not reply to comments on Twitter where people ask whether he actually talked to her doctor or art teacher.
Some even said that he should probably delete his account.
Furthermore, info started appearing on Twitter that Andrew Wang may have been involved in other misconduct too, backing other dubious projects. For example, Ahi.eth claimed that Andrew Wang posed as a 13 yr boy for Art Gobblers (Paradigm) marketing, he ran a scam giveaway with NBA TopShot.
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