A nurse in rural Maine. A fitness instructor in Colorado. A venture capitalist in Florida. All three invested in the metaverse, buying land they say they thought was a solid investment.
“I was really excited about it,” said Kasha Desrosiers, a long-term care nurse. “And hopeful for, you know, whatever projects that would come out of it.”
But in just days or months, all their virtual land was gone. And each of them says that there was simply no way to get it back.
Investors across the country told CNBC that hackers stole their land in the metaverse by tricking them into clicking on links they believed were genuine portals to the virtual universe, but which turned out to be phishing sites designed to steal user credentials. What they wanted was a piece of the metaverse — a new, blockchain-based virtual set of platforms that has recently come to prominence because of significant involvement from celebrities, fashion shows and investors.
Instead, they say they got a lesson in the dangers of high-risk investing.
The rising popularity of investing in the metaverse – in which users purchase virtual “land” on various platforms with an expectation that it will increase in value – has also ushered in a new wave of high-tech fraud, according to authorities, interviews with victims and cybersecurity experts.
Defining the metaverse
The metaverse is not one single place. From virtual reality headsets to digital worlds that you can explore as an avatar, the term “metaverse” refers…
