Did You Know that Even Vitalik Buterin’s X Account Hacked To Promote Phishing Link?
Hacking social media accounts, especially X accounts is not new that scammers use to promote scams. It happened before. But when you see top high-profile individuals' social media accounts are compromised, that is seriously concerning. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s X account was hacked and victims already lost more than $691,000.
Vitalik's father Dmitry Buterin warned people about this incident and urged them to ignore posts that come from Vitalik Buterin’s X account. Hackers made a tweet to celebrate Proto-Danksharding coming to Ethereum and offer free NFTs. It will be available for only 24 hours. And there was a phishing link to claim NFTs.
Unfortunately, some people fell for that. People like Vitalik Buterin and when he posts anything on X, most people in crypto follow that. Blockchain expert and crypto detective ZachXBT tweeted about this and informed people what was happening. The most valuable stolen NFT is CryptoPunk #3983 which is worth 153.62 ETH or almost $250,543.
Hackers were able to drain $691K in their phishing attack. Ethereum developer Bok Khoo, @Bokkypoobah on X, is one of the victims and he lost a couple of NFTs. Bokkypoobah tweeted to make people aware of this hack and also requested not to interact with the post.
People shared their opinions about how Vitalik Buterin’s X account has been compromised. But it is just speculation. It is not clear how hackers managed to get access to Vitalik's X account. Looks like you may not trust any offer you see on Twitter. Even highly trusted reputed individuals' social media accounts are used to promote scams.
When you realize that it comes from hackers, maybe it becomes too late and hackers will drain your wallet. Hackers lure the potential victims to visit the phishing site and connect their crypto wallets to claim free NFTs. Hackers steal crypto assets as soon as they follow instructions to claim NFTs.
Chinese crypto journalist Colin Wu known as Wu Blockchain made people aware of this hacking incident. In his tweet, he also talked about hacking Uniswap founder Hayden Adams X account which happened in a similar fashion to promote scams. Somehow hackers create urgency to take action immediately. Criminal actors usually use greed and fear to get the job done.
In Vitalik Buterin’s X Account, hackers used greed to get free NFTs whereas hackers used fear in Uniswap founder Hayden Adams's X account to revoke permission to connect crypto wallets. If somehow hackers manage to get access to victims' crypto wallets, they do not waste any time and drain the wallets completely.
I think it is good to say No to any offer to get something free in crypto unless it is verified that it is legit. Offering something for free in crypto is hackers' common tactic to lure potential victims into their traps. So watch out and verify when you get any offer in crypto.
