Scammers steal nearly $1M after hijacking 8+ prominent crypto twitter accounts
Over the past few weeks, a group of scammers has 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 crypto so far, according to blockchain sleuth ZachXBT.
In a June 9 Twitter thread, ZachXBT outlined that he had uncovered several wallets “linked on chain” that are connected to phishing scams promoted by the recently hacked accounts.
“While the majority of these attacks were the result of a SIM Swap it seems other accounts were potentially stolen with a [Twitter admin] panel,” ZachXBT noted.
Over the past few weeks we have seen 8+ account takeovers connected to the same group of scammers as evident by how their addresses are linked on-chain. I hope @TwitterSafety investigates each attack closely as they have resulted in almost seven figures stolen. @miramurati… pic.twitter.com/ypnqyb5oNy
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, gold proponent and fervent crypto hater Peter Schiff also saw his account hacked to promote a dubious link relating to tokenized gold in Decentralized Finance.
“I hope Twitter Safety investigates each attack closely as they have resulted in almost seven figures stolen,” ZachXBT said, adding that:
The blockchain sleuth urged people to use a security key as opposed to opting for SMS-based two-factor authentication.
Another one of the account hacks highlighted by ZachXBT includes OpenAI’s CTO Mira Murati.
Related: Uniswap scam alert: Fraudsters impersonate executives and create fake website
On June 2, members of the crypto community fired off warnings about
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