Crypto Detective Coffeezilla Exposes $20 Million ‘Squiggles’ NFT Scam

Self-appointed “internet detective” and YouTuber Coffeezilla has posted a new video explaining how he and members of the crypto community took down an alleged scam involving US$20 million in NFTs before it actually came to pass.

As Coffeezilla relates in the video (see below), serious hype had surrounded a new crypto project called “Squiggles”, which had an NFT drop scheduled for February 10. At the time, Squiggles had more than 230,000 followers on Twitter.

Hours before the anticipated drop, an anonymous user published a detailed dossier that alleged Squiggles’ founders were paid puppets. At the same time, the real people behind the project turned out to be a group of serial NFT scam artists operating under the umbrella name “NFT Factory LA”. As Coffeezilla explains:

[This dossier] documents allegations about NFT Factory LA, consisting of ‘Gavin, Gabe and Ali’, [three young men] behind not just Squiggles but several [other] NFT scams [which] include League of Sacred Devils, League of Divine Beings, Vault of Gyms, Sinful Souls, Dirty Dogs, Lucky Buddhas, and on and on.

Coffeezilla, YouTuber and ‘internet detective’

‘Stooges’ Impersonate ‘Original’ Three Stooges

The crypto community at large soon saw through these scams and the trio was quickly outed for orchestrating the alleged rug-pulls. To cover their tracks, they hired “stooges” to carry out the work of future projects, including Squiggles. However, before the project’s US$20 million NFT drop was due to take place, video footage was posted on Instagram allegedly showing Squiggles’ founder, Arsalan, and Gavin (one of the NFT Factory LA trio) together in the same Rolls-Royce.

Later, a photo surfaced showing all three members of the trio at the same location. “Pretty quickly, people put two and two together,” says Coffeezilla. Hours after launch, OpenSea delisted the project. “They were stopped from making the $20 million they could have made, and that’s good.”