In recent weeks, a group of scammers have hijacked more than eight Twitter accounts belonging to prominent figures in the crypto space to promote phishing scams. The group has stolen almost $1 million worth of cryptocurrency so far, according to blockchain detective ZachXBT.
In a June 9 Twitter thread, ZachXBT highlighted that he had discovered several "on-chain" wallets that are connected to phishing scams promoted by the recently hacked accounts.
โWhile most of these attacks were the result of a SIM swap, it appears that other accounts were potentially stolen with a [Twitter admin] panel,โ ZachXBT noted.
In the past few weeks, we have seen over 8 account takeovers connected to the same group of scammers, as evidenced by the way their addresses are linked in the chain.
Wait @TwitterSecurity investigate each attack closely, as they have resulted in nearly seven-figure robberies. @miramuratiโฆ pic.twitter.com/ypnqyb5oNy
โ ZachXBT (@zachxbt) June 8, 2023
The accounts belong to figures such as Pudgy Penguins founder Cole Villemain, DJ and NFT collector Steve Aoki and Bitcoin Magazine editor Pete Rizzo.
Oddly enough, the defender of gold and fervent enemy of cryptocurrencies Peter Schiff also saw his account hacked to promote a dubious link related to tokenized gold on Decentralized Finance.
โI expect Twitter Safety to investigate each attack closely as they have resulted in nearly seven figure theft,โ ZachXBT said, adding that:
โWhen the scammer gains control of a Twitter account, phishing scams are tweeted out almost immediately. Slow response times from Twitter support have resulted in some of these tweets remaining active for many hours and even days.
The blockchain detective urged people to use a security key instead of opting for SMS-based two-factor authentication.
Another of the account hacks highlighted by ZachXBT includes OpenAI CTO Mira Murati.
Related: Uniswap Scam Alert: Scammers Posing as Executives and Creating a Fake Website
On June 2, members of the crypto community issued warnings about his account by sharing a phishing link promoting a fake airdrop for an ERC-20 token called OPENAI.
This particular post was live for about an hour and was viewed 79,600 times and retweeted 83 times before being removed. In particular, the scammers had restricted who could reply to the tweet in an attempt to prevent people from placing warnings on it.
In late May, Arthur Madrid, co-founder and CEO of metaverse platform The Sandbox, was also subjected to the same style of Twitter account hack that saw the promoting a fake SAND airdrop.
However, it is not clear if this particular hack is connected to the hacking group identified by ZachXBT.
Magazine: $3.4 Billion Bitcoin in a Popcorn Can: The Silk Road Hacker Story
Post navigation
