On November 24, 2021, Animoca Brands announced they would compensate the financial damages caused to the players due to the hack of their Phantom Galaxy Discord server and fake NFT scam that took place on November 19. Players affected by the hack can now claim their compensation via the official Phantom Galaxies website.
On November 19, 2021, hackers gained access to Phantom Galaxies’ official Discord server. Although the Admin account was secured by two-factor authentication, a malware bot compromised this two-factor authentication to get control of the server.
The hackers started to post false announcements and claimed that the game would launch a surprise NFT minting event. They also directed users to a fraud Phantom Galaxies Website where the minting event was supposed to occur. The website asked users to pay 0.1 ETH as a “minting fee.” This money was getting transferred to the hacker’s account without the user’s knowledge, and they received nothing for this transaction. In only three hours, the hackers were able to steal a total of 265 ETH.
What was Animoca Brands’ immediate response to this scam?
The senior management of Animoca Brands came to know about this at around 03:40 AM and immediately tried to contact Blowfish – a subsidiary of Animoca Brands. With Blowfish’s headquarters based in Hong Kong, Animoca could not reach them immediatly due to the time difference. Animoca Brands’ executive chairman and co-founder Yat Siu tweeted that their discord server was compromised and warned users not to pay any money. Discord also restricted hackers’ access and returned control to their owners.
How will players be compensated?
The time has come for players to get back their lost money, and they will be able to do so by visiting a dedicated Phantom Galaxy webpage. Players get two options to claim their compensation, which are as follows:
- Claim a free Poster 3 NFT when the collection is made available. Players do not require KYC procedures. Instead, they just have to prove that they were affected by the hack.
- Get a full refund in ETH. For this, affected players will need to complete a KYC process.
What is Phantom Galaxies?
Phantom Galaxies is a third-person, open world, space sim, mech shooter, RPG. Players take the role of Space Rangers who pilot Mechanized Starfighters. These vehicles function as typical fighter-style spaceships, and they also transform into Mech robots.
During the game, players engage in Missions, the long-form story content of the game, and Quests, one-off scenarios. Also available are Operations (daily quests) and Raids, team-based objectives. The farther away from the core, the more dangerous the missions, and the better the loot. Far enough out, and one enters the ‘Rebel Sectors’. Here players compete with each other to gain control of various bases and resource points. Once captured, players stake governance tokens to their holdings and earn a steady stream of rewards — as long as they maintain control.
Starfighters unlock as players progress through the story. Featuring a resource harvesting and crafting system, Phantom Galaxies allows players to upgrade Starfighters and even build them from scratch! Starfighters suffer durability damage and require repair ever once in a while. Losing a ship while in a Rebel Sector could be permanent! Phantom Galaxies also includes Avatar NFTs that level up, Arena PvP, property ownership (from space stations to planetary bases to entire planets!), and support for guilds.
The initial launch for Phantom Galaxies is on the Polygon blokchain. Long-term plans include multichain support, where each chain has its own home galaxy but players can still interact. Closed Alpha is available now, with early access beta expected to launch in Q3 2022.
To participate in the Phantom Galaxies closed alpha, players need to own “The Halberd-001 NFT”, which is available on NFT marketplaces like OpenSea.
