Cybersecurity experts have issued a warning of an increase in cryptocurrency and phishing scams on X, which are leveraging the platform’s gold checkmarks that should be derived for organizations verified.
Hackers are abducting inactive accounts and even penetrating those with improved protection, including Google’s division Mandiant. Potential factors like Elon Musk’s recent decision to lower the gold check price are making it easier for bad actors.
These scams usually appear as fake airdrops or giveaways, convincing users to click harmful links that take away their cryptocurrency. Even such well-known figures as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and politicians have not been left behind.
Earlier on in September Vitalik Buterin co-founder of Ethereum fell victim to these misdeeds that is currently happening. Vitalik’s account was hijacked by hackers. After the hackers were able to access his account they later posted fake offers for free non-fungible tokens to the public.
They later added a fake link that one was expected to click and follow to be able to access the NFTs not knowing that the link would actually designed to enable them to get hold of your crypto wallet.
The post just lasted for about 20 minutes but within this short period, it had drained over $691,000 in digital assets from Vitalik followers as per CloudSEK’s report.
CloudSEK, a digital threat monitoring platform credits the growth to the fact that hijacked gold checks can be sold for around $2,000. To reduce the risk, they suggest that organizations improve brand monitoring, increase security settings, and close inactive accounts.
The problem may become worse given the drop in prices of gold checks. Users should be more cautious and check for the authenticity of accounts before accepting or participating in any offers.
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