Crypto Influencers Duped by Scam Posts Linked to Third-Party Service IFTTT
Summary:
A new wave of scam posts on a platform called X, allegedly caused by the third-party auto-posting service IFTTT, tricked users into sending cryptocurrency to a fraudulent wallet. Several crypto influencers had their accounts hacked, with unauthorized posts promoting a spurious meme token, "$PACKY." The victims included a16z adviser Packy McCormick, Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, and Coinbase's product director Scott Shapiro. Authorities advice revoking authorizations to old third-party apps to prevent such breaches.
Third-party auto-posting service, IFTTT (If This Then That), has been implicated in a new wave of fraudulent posts on platform X that are duping users into sending the cryptocurrency, Solana (SOL), to a wallet associated with the new “$PACKY” meme token. Crypto influencers, such as a16z adviser Packy McCormick, Coinbase's product director Scott Shapiro, and Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, have been plagued by scam promotions on their X account on March 21. McCormick, alerting his followers to the intrusion, said his account was hacked and urged his followers not to interact with any suspicious links or send money to the given address. This came in response to a malicious post made through his account claiming to launch a new meemcoin named PACKY with grand marketing plans. Additionally, evidence gathered by blockchain detective ZachXBT seems to suggest that these hacks originated from IFTTT, which is a service that gives users the ability to automate tasks between different web services. Justin Kan from Twitch also fell victim to a similar scam and confirmed that he was hacked. A similar fraudulent message appeared on product director Scott Shapiro's Twitter account of Coinbase with the message falsely claiming that he had joined forces with CEO Brian Armstrong to introduce the PACKY token. Scott Shapiro warned about the risk of connecting old third-party applications and stressed the need to revoke autorization of these apps. Mike Demarais, co-founder of Web3 explorer app Rainbow, Joe McCann, founder and CEO of Asymmetric Finance, and digital artist Bryan Brinkman also fell victim to this hacking spree. Brinkman, acknowledging the breach, warned users of the vulnerabilities and offered to compensate anyone who was duped into sending money. The recent series of scams adds to the list of fraudulent activities on the platform X. This includes an intrusion into the SEC’s official account which occurred a day before the regulator greenlit spot Bitcoin ETFs in January.
Published At
3/22/2024 8:44:02 AM
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