Malicious actors continue to target well-known people's Twitter accounts to promote scam tokens.
An air of concern swept through the cryptocurrency community on Twitter on June 2nd, as Mira Murati, OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer, seemingly fell victim to a cyberattack.
Her Twitter account was reportedly compromised and used to propagate a fraudulent "crypto airdrop" on the platform.
Did you know?
Want to get smarter & wealthier with crypto?
Subscribe - We publish new crypto explainer videos every week!
Can Russia Use Crypto to Bypass Sanctions? (Animated)
On the said day, Murati's verified account, followed by a massive 126,200 audience, released a suspicious link, promising an airdrop of a so-called ERC-20 token, OPENAI. It was interestingly named after OpenAI, the renowned artificial intelligence firm behind ChatGPT.
Unfortunately, the fraudulent post managed to garner quite the attention during its one-hour live span before deletion, amassing 79,600 views and 83 retweets. The author of the tweet restricted who could respond, thereby hampering efforts to warn users that the link was, in fact, a scam.
Commenting on the attack, a security researcher from blockchain security firm Beosin revealed that the malicious website used in a hack utilizes a widely available crypto wallet draining kit. The website replicated the layout and design of a legitimate ChainGPT page with minor alterations - primarily urging users to connect a crypto wallet.
Once the request is signed, the attacker will transfer NFTs and ERC-20 tokens out of the victim’s wallet.
Speculations among Twitter users suggest that Murati may have been a victim of a SIM-swapping attack.
This incident serves as a stark reminder of the increasing threat posed by cybercriminals in the digital age, particularly for high-profile individuals in the tech industry. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are encouraged to remain vigilant about such scams and urged to critically evaluate the source of information before proceeding with any transactions involving digital assets.
At the end of March, the Twitter account of Circle's chief strategy officer (CSO), Dante Disparte, had been hacked, and promoted a fake crypto loyalty benefits program targeted at long-time USDC users.
