OpenAI Has a New Addition to Its List of Crypto Scams
On Monday evening, OpenAI’s newsroom account on X was hacked by cryptocurrency scammers, who called it $OpenAI, claiming to link AI to blockchain and offer tokens, among a list of crypto scams previously encountered by the company.
The newsroom account was launched at the beginning of this month to share latest news and updates related to the company.
False Tokens of Cryptocurrency
The hackers claimed that they were introducing a new blockchain token, “$OPENAI,” and related it to AI and blockchain technology. The posting also falsely claimed that any user of OpenAI could get part of the initial supply and receive access to future beta programs for their projects by holding the token.
However, there is no “$OPENAI”, and the post linked to a phishing site. The phishing site would use a spoofed URL and attempt to make users connect crypto wallets. Once users connected, the scammers could potentially steal login details and drain wallets.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that the AI company and its employees faces incidents as this hack is an addition to the list of crypto scams that have affected OpenAI.
A Recurring Incident
In June 2023, hackers took over the X account of OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer, Mira Murati, to advertise a similar fake cryptocurrency. Accounts belonging to both OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki and researcher Jason Wei were also compromised in recent months to push the same scam.
These incidents are another example of the pattern of hackers taking over high-profile accounts on X and running such hacks as a method to trick regulars out of cryptocurrency. This shows the list of crypto scams occurring on social media platforms.
In 2020, accounts belonging to Elon Musk, Joe Biden, and Apple had been captured in a big scam to encourage users to send bitcoin under the false promise that it would be doubled in return.
An Ongoing Threat Facing Big Tech
According to the FBI report related to cryptocurrency scams, this type of incidents is continuously growing, costing Americans $5.6 billion in 2023-a 45% bump over last year. The pace is on track to continue this year with more than 50,000 scams reported so far in 2024. The Federal Trade Commission pegs those to have cost consumers nearly $2.5 billion in just six months.
Additionally, other big tech companies, such as TikTok Meta, and other platforms are also struggling in this regard trying to avoid the occurrence of scamming incidents.
Back in August, Facebook parent company was accused by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) of celebrity scam ads in 2022, alleging the company had engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct in publishing the ads, and aiding and supporting the false conduct by the advertisers.
When reached for a comment Open AI did not give any details on the breach, but the company deleted the fake posts made by hackers.
This latest hack certainly shows that social media security needs to be more monitored and equipped with necessary features or regulations to limit the list of crypto scams.
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