In a startling turn of events, the Twitter account of Mira Murati, OpenAI’s CTO, was hijacked, potentially impacting tens of thousands of users.
Once compromised, the attackers leveraged the CTO’s compromised account to execute a fraudulent cryptocurrency airdrop.
The scam revolved around a malicious ERC-20 token named OPENAI.
Despite its relatively short lifespan, lasting only an hour, the deceptive tweet managed to reach an estimated 80,000 users before being removed.
According to the security expert Scam Sniffer, the attack was perpetrated by Pink Drainer, a type of “malware-as-a-service” that lets users quickly spin up malicious site hosting. The services reportedly charge up to 30% of any assets stolen in exchange for the software.
According to Scam Sniffer, Pink Drainer has been exceptionally active in recent days, pilfering over $1,800,000 since May 30 across more than 500 individuals in the process.
Crypto Twitter scams on the rise
Instances of high-profile Twitter account hijackings have been reported in the past, highlighting the severity of the issue.
The 2020 Bitcoin Scam, for instance, involved the compromise of more than 130 prominent Twitter accounts, including figures like Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and notable companies such as Apple, Uber, and Cash App.
These accounts were exploited to promote a fraudulent Bitcoin scheme, emphasizing the significant impact such scams can have.
Even news organizations have fallen victim to account hijackings, resulting in the dissemination of false information. Major outlets like BBC, Reuters, and The Guardian experienced compromises by groups like the Syrian Electronic Army.
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