ZachXBT alleges Gamegear dev 'scaredofboobs' is scammer NFT Machine

In a Telegram post, the on-chain sleuth warned users to beware of X account scaredofboobs.

X user scaredofboobs is the alleged scammer NFT Machine, according to a report from on-chain sleuth ZachXBT. In his official Telegram channel on Dec. 28, ZachXBT claimed that “X/Twitter User scaredofboobs is a scammer known as NFT Machine.”

NFT Machine was an X (formerly Twitter) account run by the founder of OpenFT, a decentralized marketplace project. The account was suspended on X for “violating [its] rules.” According to a February 2022 thread from crypto investor Shual, the NFT Machine account was managed by “doxxed American citizen” Tyler Gaye. A report from the Colorado section of LocalToday news also states that Gaye and NFT Machine are the same person and that Gaye is a resident of Denver. The LocalToday report cites BusinessDen, a Colorado news site, as its source.

According to the LocalToday report, Gaye was sued by investors for allegedly creating a fraudulent scheme to raise money and spend it on nonfungible tokens (NFTs) for his personal collection. Using his NFT Machine account, Gaye promoted OpeNFT, raising $55,000 from investors. But instead of creating an NFT marketplace, he spent the funds on NFTs for himself, including many items from the MoonCats collection, the lawsuit alleged.

The report states that investors subsequently hired a private investigator to track down Gaye, which resulted in his home address being found. They then filed a lawsuit against him, seeking a return of funds and punitive damages. Gaye didn’t show up to court, and a default judgment was issued against him. He was ordered to pay back $55,000 to investors, an additional $55,000 in damages and $165,000 in punitive damages, for a total of $275,000, the report claimed.

Scaredofboobs is an X user known for publishing open-source code related to Solana smart contract development. They are also the developer of Gamegear, a web-based platform that offers retro games such as Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Dig Dug, and others.

According to ZachXBT’s Dec. 18 post, Tyler Gaye is the X user scaredofboobs. The sleuth also claims that Gaye has not paid back investors as ordered by the court and has continued to create new crypto projects. ZachXBT pointed to the retro gaming project ArcadeDAO as one example.

Related: ZachXBT tracks crypto thieves who used LastPass breach data

Cointelegaph did not find any examples of the X account scaredofboobs being used to explicitly promote crypto investments, although it did find many references to open-source Solana projects.

In August, ZachXBT released research stating that over $13 million worth of crypto had been stolen in SIM-swap attacks over the previous four months. On Dec. 24, he deactivated his X account, leading impersonators to create fake accounts claiming to be him. The account has since been reactivated, but has not posted since Dec. 18. 

ZachXBT’s Dec. 28 post exposing scaredofboobs was made on Telegram and was not cross-published to X.