Known for their persistent attacks on the cryptocurrency industry, cybercriminals are now using social media to lure gullible people in by focusing on well-known firms and personalities. McDonald's Instagram account was recently compromised in order to promote a fake memecoin known as "Grimace." With 5.1 million followers, the fast-food juggernaut often posts promotional content on the network. Since then, McDonald's has taken back control of its account.
Following the August 21 attack, hackers changed McDonald's Instagram bio to say they had taken $700,000 (about Rs. 5.8 crore) through the fraud. This alarming claim caused concern among the 5.1 million followers of the brand.
This Is Exactly What Took Place
Blockchain analytics company Bubblemaps said via tweets that the account hacker had 75% of Grimace's supply via Solana memecoin deployer pump.fun.
"The hacker propagated into about 100 addresses after using numerous addresses to purchase (Grimace) on Pumpfun concurrently. sold for $700,000, or around Rs. 5.8 crore, according to Bubblemaps.
On X, there are screenshots of McDonald's compromised Instagram account. While offering Grimace memecoin holders a follow back on their accounts, they depict hackers misleading followers of their accounts into believing the fraudulent memecoin is a McDonald's experiment on the Solana blockchain. According to DexScreener's statistics, the market capitalization of Grimace increased to $25 million, or about Rs. 20.9 crore, in only thirty minutes after these postings were published.
Users were "rug pulled" by "India_X_kr3w," according to the hacker's altered version of McDonald's Instagram profile. The hacker wrote, "Thank you for the $700,000 in Solana."
Based on the hacker's identity and the Indian flag emoji left in the compromised bio, some people on X are guessing that the attacker could be Indian; however, no one from India has taken credit for the incident. As a result, it's not yet known if the hacker has any connection to India.
What Followed
After the incident, McDonald's was able to get its account back. The modified bio and any postings pertaining to the Grimace memecoin have been deleted. DexScreener reports that following the breach, the price of Grimace has decreased to $0.0003752 (around Rs. 0.031).
According to a new research by Web3 bug bounty platform Immunefi, there was a 91 percent increase in cryptocurrency scams during the second quarter of 2024, which spans from April to June, in comparison to the same period in 2023. According to the research, in Q2 2024, the cryptocurrency business lost $509 million, or about Rs. 4,261 crore, due to fraud and scams.
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