Hayden Adams, the founder of decentralized exchange Uniswap, lost access to his Twitter account for a while, courtesy of unidentified crypto scammers. Once the hackers managed to breach Adams’ account, malicious links were tweeted with the aim of luring unsuspecting people to click on it. Soon after, however, alerts about the hack of Adams’ account began popping up on social media, warning people against engaging in phishing links. Scammers want to take advantage of the large number of cryptocurrency influencers to try to target as many investors as possible.
Notorious cyber actors who attacked Adams’ account tweeted that Uniswap’s Permit2 contract was exploited anonymously, putting users’ tokens at risk. The scammers were trying to get Uniswap users to click on an infected link to “save their funds.”
Shortly after this now-deleted tweet was posted, members of the community began alerting others that this tweet might be a hoax.
Their concerns and fears were confirmed after Uniswap Labs’ official handle said that their CEO’s Twitter was indeed compromised. The tweet also clarified that the Uniswap protocol was safe from scammers.
In control of my twitter again :saluting_face:
I appreciate everyone who helped out tonight and the effort people put in to help with takedowns, warnings, etc.
Will follow up with updates when ready https://t.co/t6WCAWOYlP
— hayden.eth :unicorn_face: (@haydenzadams) July 21, 2023
It’s unclear how many people actually got involved with the fraudulent post.
Adams later posted that he had been given control of his Twitter account again, thanking community members for keeping an eye out.
In control of my twitter again :saluting_face:
I appreciate everyone who helped out tonight and the effort people put in to help with takedowns, warnings, etc.
Will follow up with updates when ready https://t.co/t6WCAWOYlP
— hayden.eth :unicorn_face: (@haydenzadams) July 21, 2023
In recent years, Twitter has become a breeding ground for cryptocurrency scammers.
Early last month, the Twitter account of OpenAI CTO Mira Murati was allegedly hacked by cryptocurrency scammers, who promoted a fake cryptocurrency airdrop via this verified account.
Prior to that, the hackers managed to gain control of KuCoin’s Twitter handle for approximately 45 minutes, searching for unsuspecting victims. After gaining control of the exchange’s Twitter handle, the hackers posted fake activity. KuCoin users who interacted with this post may have been affected by the losses.
The Twitter accounts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) have also been previously breached by crypto scammers to search for victims.
