Business Intelligence Firm MicroStrategy’s X account has been compromised, with hackers posting a series of malicious links leading to an airdrop for a fake Ethereum-based MSTR token.
Unsuspecting users who fell for the fake links ended up losing over $440,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
MicroStrategy’s X Account Hacked
Links posted on the X account after it was hacked led users to a fake airdrop of a so-called “official” Ethereum-based MSTR token. Users clicking on the links were led to a copycat MicroStrategy page directing them to connect their wallets to claim the tokens. The user is then asked to accept a series of permissions on their Web3 wallet. Once granted, the hackers could access the user’s wallet and drain the tokens.
According to blockchain investigator ZachXBT and anti-scam platform Scam Sniffer, users have lost over $440,000 from the scam.
Considerable Loss For One User
Scam Sniffer disclosed that one user lost over $420,000 in the phishing scam just minutes after the first malicious link was posted to MicroStrategy’s account.
“Someone lost $424,786 worth of $wBAI, $wPOKT, and $CHEX to phishing scams about 5 minutes ago.”
The user, whose identity is so far unknown, ended up losing $424,786 worth of altcoins, with one transaction going to the attacker who hacked the MicroStrategy account and two other transfers from the wallet being re-routed to a second wallet that was associated with the notorious hacking group, PinkDrainer.
The victim signed for a transaction that resulted in a total of $134,000 worth of Wrapped Balance AI (wBAI), $122,000 worth of Chintai (CHEX), and $45,000 worth of Wrapped Pocket Network (wPOKT) that were sent to the attacker’s wallet. The attacker’s wallet currently holds a total of $329,000 worth of Ethereum-based tokens.
Obvious Scam, Say Crypto Pundits
Many market watchers and industry experts were quick to point out the obvious nature of the scam, with pseudo-anonymous British crypto investor Cobie noting that MicroStrategy, which focuses exclusively on Bitcoin, wouldn’t launch a token on Ethereum.
“Obviously, I am trying not to be victim-blaming here, but you have gotta be very special to think MicroStrategy is launching an ETH token after Saylor has spent multiple years very famously saying ‘there is no second best’ and ‘you only use one chair’ etc.”
MicroStrategy regained control of their X account by 10 am Hong Kong time and deleted the scam tweet. However, the company has yet to comment on the incident or on how its account got compromised and the financial damages faced by unsuspecting users.
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