Crypto Scammers Miss Payday After Hacking High-Profile Social Media Accounts

An unknown group of crypto scammers recently attempted to cash in on a hacking spree targeting high-profile social media accounts, but their plans went awry when they only managed to make a measly few thousand bucks.

On Sept. 18, blockchain investigator “ZachXBT” raised the alarm within the crypto community after discovering that several prominent accounts had been compromised, with all of them promoting a Solana memecoin named HACKED.

Among the hacked accounts were Lenovo India, Yahoo News UK, MoneyControl, Oliver Stone, People, and Krystal DeFi. However, this hacking incident had a unique twist compared to previous attacks.

The scammers openly admitted to hacking the accounts and bizarrely attempted to use this as an opportunity to promote the token. Each compromised account featured a message stating, “On each account we hack we publish the token address so we pump it and make profits together.”

Despite their efforts at transparency, the scammers did not achieve the desired results. ZachXBT revealed that the scammers likely ended up losing money on their scheme, with top traders only making around $1,000 and the market cap of the token standing at $67,000. Ultimately, the scammers reportedly only profited around $8,000 from the scam.

Following the hack, the Solana-based HACKED token experienced a 900% price surge within an hour before crashing back down. Currently, the token has a market capitalization of $3,100, although there are multiple tokens with the same name on Solana DEXs.

ZachXBT emphasized the importance of revoking permissions for unused apps connected to social media accounts to prevent similar hacks in the future. This incident is not the first time scammers have targeted social media accounts to promote questionable tokens, with previous attacks targeting influencers and celebrities in the crypto space.

The rise of low-fee, high-throughput blockchains like Solana has created a breeding ground for scam tokens and memecoins, with several prominent crypto entities falling victim to similar hacking incidents in recent months.