A recent incident involving the Twitter handle of rapper Wiz Khalifa has served as a chilling reminder of the vulnerability of social media accounts to hacking, especially those of high-profile individuals. In the latest example of cybercrime, an unidentified hacker took over Khalifa’s account to fraudulently promote a token. This elicited swift responses from the cryptocurrency community, with on-chain investigator ZachXBT taking the lead in issuing alerts to users that the account had been compromised.
This eyebrow-raising episode comes in the wake of another high-profile cyberattack on Andy Ayrey, the creator of Truth Terminal. A cryptocurrency bot powered by artificial intelligence, Truth Terminal was a prime target for the hackers, who successfully breached Ayrey’s Twitter account and used it to promote a fraudulent meme token.
The technique used to breach security was a SIM swap attack, a method that allows hackers to take control of a victim’s phone number, reset passwords and gain access to linked accounts. The hacker marketed a token named Infinite Backrooms (IB) through Ayrey’s account, leading to a spike in its market cap to a staggering $25 million within mere hours.
The hacker’s initial investment in purchasing 124.6 million IB tokens was around $38,400. As the price of the token skyrocketed due to promotion, the hacker quickly sold off their tokens, netting a hefty sum of $602,500 in less than an hour.
The aftermath of this scam saw all posts related to it wiped clean from Ayrey’s account, but the damage had been done. The scam had severe repercussions on Ayrey’s portfolio and the broader meme coin market. Truth Terminal, known for its substantial holdings of meme coins, took a significant hit post the scam. The most impacted was GOAT, a Solana-based meme coin that was starting to gain momentum. Following the hack, its price fell sharply by 34.5%, indicating a significant dent in investor trust.
The hacking of Wiz Khalifa’s Twitter account has instigated new concerns around security, especially in the crypto world where high-profile accounts are often targeted. This incident underscores the need for more robust security measures and heightened awareness among users to protect themselves from such scams. The crypto community must remain vigilant and proactive in identifying and reporting suspicious activities, thus helping to prevent such unfortunate incidents in the future.
