Scammers hacked DJ Steve Aoki’s Twitter account to steal $170,000 in a phishing scam related to the PYSOP token, whose founder, Ben.eth, has been asked to settle a class-action investor suit.
Crypto sleuth ZachXBT confirmed on Friday that the scammer got people to click a malicious link to claim PYSOP tokens Aoki allegedly invested in.
PSYOP Founder Suggests Investors Hacked Aoki’s Account
Influencer and PSYOP founder Ben.eth retweeted the link that caused investors to lose $170,000, according to ZachXBT.
The scammers used the link to collect personal information in yet another crypto phishing attack.
Roughly 26 ETH was sent to an address from a recent SIM swap and swatting attack.
ZachXBT previously warned about the unreliability of the token’s founder.
Earlier this week, Lookonchain reported that several investors in PSYOP’s presale lost 50% or more of their investments.
The token’s decline has caused some crypto community members to label the project a scam.
Ben.eth suggested that someone who missed out on the token presale hacked Aoki’s account to recover their investments.
A subset of investors filed a class-action lawsuit against the founder on May 20, with lawyers Loevy & Loevy warning Ben.eth he could face racketeering and wire fraud charges. Presale investors could receive up to $21 million in damages.
PSYOP has fallen 36% to $0.0042 since a May 24 all-time high.
Twitter Impersonation Scams Surged After Musk Takeover
Security researchers unearthed a surge in phishing attacks stealing Twitter credentials after Elon Musk bought the social media company.
Fraudsters often ride major news stories, like Musk’s takeover, to lure victims, they said.
Attackers direct unsuspecting victims to sites they host or Google Forms to harvest personal information.
Google’s new artificial intelligence-based email tool could make it easier for criminals to draft convincing phishing messages and elevate the threat level of the attack vector.
According to Sherrod De Grippo, vice president of threat research and detection at cybersecurity company Proofpoint, scammers target celebrity accounts because of their larger audiences.
He added that crypto pig butchering scams could start on social media before moving to other platforms.
Pig butchering is an increasingly popular confidence trick scammers are using to steal cryptocurrencies.
Con artists will reach out to potential victims via dating apps, social media websites, or even random text messages.
Scammers impersonated several major brands last year, including Apple, Tesla, and Nintendo.
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