Nonfungible token collector Pransky was duped out of 97.67 Ether, worth $341,500, after the website of pop artist Banksy was hijacked to promote a fake NFT auction.

Nonetheless, near all of the money has since been refunded.

On Aug. 31, Pransky spotted a page on Banksy'south official website promoting an NFT auction on the popular marketplace, OpenSea. Despite voicing his misgiving as to the authenticity of the token, Pranksy opted to participate in the sale and increased the highest bid by 87 Ether ($304,500) to well-nigh 100 ETH.

The bid was accepted, just after a link to the OpenSea auction was removed from Banksy'due south website, the NFT investor began to fear the listing may have been fraudulent. Just i hour afterwards sharing the auction on Twitter, Pranksy posted:

"And then my bid of 100 ETH was accepted for the potential #Banksy showtime #NFT on @opensea. The link was removed from his website so it could have been a very elaborate hoax, my guess is that is what information technology volition be, only time will tell!"

The perpetrators refunded Pranksy a few hours later on, sending 97.69 ETH backr. Pranksy believes he received the refund after identifying the hacker and following them on Twitter. He told the BBC:

"The refund was totally unexpected, I remember the press coverage of the hack plus the fact that I had found the hacker and followed him on Twitter may accept pushed him into a refund."

A spokesperson associated with Banksy said: "The creative person Banksy has non created any NFT artworks. Any Banksy NFT auctions are not affiliated with the artist in whatever shape or form." They declined to discuss whether Banky's website had been breached by hackers.

Related: Forget Lambos, NFTs are the new crypto status symbol

Commenting on the drama, Twitter user "Cryptochild" noted that OpenSea was the sole winner from the debacle, having pocketed a two.5% cut of Pransky'southward massive bid.