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A recent X account hack cost MicroStrategy investors over $440,000 in a crypto scam. The hackers compromised the company’s official account and posted fake instructions for a “MicroStrategy Money Trust” giveaway.
Different victims sent funds to the fraudulent address provided. Despite MicroStrategy regaining control, the breach shows how vulnerable businesses are on social media.
Over the weekend, crypto investors lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to the phishing scam. The hackers compromised MicroStrategy’s official X account and used it to post fraudulent giveaway details.
there was a second best after all
(hacked acc if not obvious lol) pic.twitter.com/cdLqbqiiCO
— Spreek (@spreekaway) February 26, 2024
The since-deleted posts claimed MicroStrategy had launched an Ethereum token called $MSTR. The post stated these tokens were free to claim and backed by MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin reserves. This made lots of individuals participate without even doing any research.
Unfortunately for them, the hackers provided a malicious website link in the post. This malicious link will grant the scammers access to users who click it and connect their wallets to the page. This access will allow the bad actors to drain the wallets.
According to blockchain investigator ZachXBT, over $440,000 of crypto was stolen through the scam.
0xe7645b8672b28a17dd0d650a5bf89539c9aa28da
~$440K stolen from the compromise so far
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 26, 2024
The hackers have already transferred much of the stolen loot between various addresses. Around $200,000 currently remains under their control. Meanwhile, MicroStrategy appears to have regained control of the hacked account.
The misleading posts have now been scrubbed from their account, though details on the security breach remain unclear. Many in the X crypto community noticed the scam on MicroStrategy.
The hacker used a popular pattern that other scammers have implemented before.
In 2022, a hacker moved with over $1 million using the same style to milk investors. The scammers had promised they’d double any money sent to a specific address for Michael Saylor. Some people believed them and sent the scammers five separate transactions totaling 26 BTC.
After the scam, Saylor made an X post, stating that within just one week, there were 489 scams where people used his name. Unfortunately, users fell for the same scam because they don’t scrutinize any “giveaway” or token claim promoted on social media, even from official business accounts.
Hackers often target social media accounts of prominent crypto figures and companies. They use these accounts to advertise fake giveaways and token claims. In this way, they’ll trick users into revealing sensitive information.
One high-profile incident occurred in September 2023 when Vitalik Buterin’s account was compromised through a sim swap attack. Hackers posted a phishing link that drained over $800,000 from victims. In addition, in January 2024, hackers briefly gained control of the SEC’s official account.
They falsely tweeted about approving a spot Bitcoin ETF, causing BTC’s price to spike before the claim was debunked. The lack of two-factor authentication enabled this SEC account takeover via another sim swap hack.
These are two examples of social media hacking incidents targeting crypto users globally.
Therefore, every crypto user or trader must constantly scrutinize easy and sweet offers to amass wealth through crypto giveaways or profit-making opportunities.
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