On December 24, blockchain detective ZachXBT revealed on X that a hacker posed as X's official account, sending false infringement notices to hack into multiple victims' accounts, and then used the victims' accounts to promote meme coin scams, successfully defrauding nearly $500,000 in the past month.
Impersonating X's official account sent notices, users were deceived and passwords stolen.
ZachXBT stated that from November 26 to December 24, the hacker posed as X's official account and sent out 'copyright infringement notices' to lure victims into phishing websites, further obtaining victims' X account passwords, two-factor authentication (2FA), and other information, ultimately seizing control of the accounts.
Investigations show that currently, 15 victims' accounts are related to cryptocurrency, including the well-known live streaming platform Kick, the SocialFi platform The Arena, and other popular accounts with over 200,000 followers. The hacker used these accounts to post phishing messages promoting false meme coins, further attracting interested users, and defrauding victims of nearly $500,000 in just one month.
The hacker's methods are varied, with funds being cross-chain laundered.
ZachXBT pointed out that the hacker primarily used six addresses to carry out the scams, transferring stolen funds between the Solana and Ethereum blockchains, attempting to conceal the source of the illicit funds and increase the difficulty of tracing them.
Many popular accounts that were impersonated, such as the cross-chain protocol Neutron, have publicly acknowledged being impersonated and used for scams.
Cryptocurrency scams are rampant, with $2.2 billion stolen this year.
According to foreign media reports, losses from cryptocurrency-related phishing scams in October this year have exceeded $20.2 million, while losses in November have slowed down, decreasing by 53% compared to October, down to $9.3 million. However, with the year-end holidays approaching, scam activities seem to be on the rise again.
According to previous reports from Chain News, there have been 303 major hacking incidents in 2024 so far, with losses reaching $2.2 billion, an increase of 21% from last year, in which North Korean hackers alone stole over $1.3 billion, twice the amount stolen in 2023, accounting for 61% of the total global hacker thefts in 2024. Users still need to enhance their crisis awareness and think twice before clicking on unknown links.
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'Using meme coin scams to rake in $500,000! Blockchain detective: Hackers invade 15 popular crypto accounts' This article was first published on 'Crypto City'.