Seth Green Loses Bored Ape, the Star of His Animated Series, to a Phishing Scam

The star of Seth Green's new show, White Horse Tavern, has been kidnapped — but getting him back may be difficult, because he's not real.

The animated character, known as Bored Ape, is an NFT, or non-fungible token. NFTs have recently grown in popularity as a type of digital financial security that can be sold or traded online, but it turns out they're not so secure after all. Green, who is known for having a large NFT collection, recently announced that Bored Ape would be the star of his upcoming animated series, but before the show could become a reality, the actor was robbed of several NFTs, Bored Ape included, when he accidentally interacted with a phishing site.

In an interview with entrepreneur and crypto enthusiast Gary Vaynerchuk, Green explained the loss, saying, "I bought that ape in July 2021, and have spent the last several months developing and exploiting the IP to make it into the star of this show. Then days before — his name is Fred by the way — days before he’s set to make his world debut, he’s literally kidnapped."

By losing ownership of the NFT, Green also lost the commercial rights to use the cartoon's likeness in the upcoming series. The actor pleaded via Twitter with an online user, DarkWing84, who purchased the NFT for more than $200,000, to return it.

"Looks like you bought my stolen ape- hit me up so we can fix it," Green tweeted.

Well frens it happened to me. Got phished and had 4NFT stolen. @BoredApeYC @opensea @doodles @yugalabs please don’t buy or trade these while I work to resolve:@DarkWing84 looks like you bought my stolen ape- hit me up so we can fix it pic.twitter.com/VL1OVnd44m

— Seth Green (@SethGreen) May 17, 2022

Kirstie Renae is a writer, blogger, and Austin-based actress with a penchant for binge-watching TV with her dogs. Follow her on Twitter @KirstieRenae.