Hackers Take Over Robinhood’s Twitter to Promote Scam Token
- Robinhood’s social media profiles suffered a hack, which the company claims was carried out by a third-party vendor.
- The hacker allegedly made off with over $8,000 in cash.
- One of the most popular channels for hackers to find victims is social media.
The official Twitter page of crypto investment platform Robinhood was reportedly compromised and taken over by hackers, who used the platform to promote a fake token. According to multiple reports, the hackers on Wednesday, January 25th, shared a tweet promoting a new token called “RBH” on the Binance Smart Chain. The scam token had an initial price of $0.005. However, the token turned out to be fraudulent, and holders could neither sell nor transfer them after purchase.
The tweets were later deleted. However, about 10 users had purchased $1000 worth of the tokens before then. According to reports, other social media profiles belonging to Robinhood were also attacked. Internet detective ZackXBT published a Binance Smart Chain scan that showed that the scammers managed to escape with 26,955 BNB tokens, or about $8,200. ZackXBT claimed the wallet that benefited from the scam was housed on Binance. Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance, later announced that the account had been locked “pending further investigations.”
Robinhood reacted to the situation, saying,
We’re aware of the unauthorized posts from Robinhood Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook profiles, which were all removed within minutes. At this time, based on our ongoing investigation, we believe the source of the incident was via a third-party vendor.
Changpeng Zhao also took the moment to advise users to always exercise caution, “even if the account looks or is real.” Twitter scams have been on the increase since last year. Hackers who seek to promote fake crypto tokens or projects hack Twitter accounts and send out tweets with harmful links that could result in phishing attacks or malware downloads. Many of these frauds rely on appealing offers like free cryptocurrency to trick users into making payments.
Cybercriminals managed to breach Twitter’s security in 2020 and impersonate accounts belonging to prominent individuals such as former US President Barack Obama and then Vice President Joe Biden. Federal investigators claim the attack wiped out $117,000 in BTC. However, the culprits were later found and arrested.
I have covered some exciting stories in my career as a journalist and find blockchain-related stories very intriguing. I believe Web3 will change the world and want everyone to be a part of it.
