Rapper Curtis James Jackson III, aka “50 Cent,” recently said his X account and website were compromised. Hackers used his vast following of some 12.9 million followers to shill a token called “GUNIT.” It is now known to be some sort of fraudulent token as part of a pump-and-dump operation whereby its price was inflated before crashing back down to nearly nothing.
Hackers took over 50 Cent’s X account and website to excite a new crypto token they called “GUNIT.” In the scam, investors lost a whopping $300 million. The phony developers pumped up the price of GUNIT with 50 Cent’s following before draining its value rapidly to just $0.000161. 50 Cent later confirmed that his account was hacked on Instagram, stating he had nothing to do with the crypto, and hackers made off with $300 million in less than 30 minutes.
As part of a more significant trend hitting high-profile verified accounts on Twitter, hackers used them to run cryptocurrency scams. Hijacking government- or business-verified accounts with gold or grey checkmarks was geared toward making their scams look more professional. For example, one recent case of hacking the account of Microsoft India promoted a fake presale of GameStop cryptocurrency.
Furthermore, hackers have been creating Elon Musk deepfakes touting new cryptocurrencies. They have also generated millions of dollars for the scammers by riding on his influence in things concerning cryptocurrency.
This uptick in this type of attack further outlines the lingering chinks in the armor of security on social media, with even enhanced measures such as two-factor authentication in place. It underlines how users need to remain vigilant and cynical toward investment opportunities being promoted through hacked or impersonated accounts.
