Blockchain Capital’s Hacked X Account Advertises Fake Token Giveaway: Report

Blockchain Capital’s X (formerly known as Twitter) account was hacked by crypto scammers on Wednesday. Soon after the scammers had access to the account of the venture capital firm, they posted promotions for a fake token drop — or giveaway — as part of an attempt to phish unsuspecting users. The company later regained access to its account and the post appears to have been deleted from the platform. Users who want to stay safe from these attacks should use two-factor authentication with hardware security keys.

According to a CoinTelegraph report, a now deleted post on X asked Blockchain Capital’s followers to claim $BCAP tokens before the supply ran out. Their post however, redirected people to fake BCAP tokens on a copycat website designed to resemble the original page of the venture capital company.

The URL of the phishing website included an additional ‘n’ to resemble the original page, as per the report. It seems that Blockchain Capital has managed to regain access to its verified handle that has over 60,000 followers.

As of now, the number of people who engaged with this post remains unclear. In addition, cryptocurrency transactions are largely untraceable which makes it very convenient for scammers to dodge law enforcement authorities.

At this point, the crypto sector is worth $1.18 trillion (roughly Rs. 97,72,618 crore), as per CoinMarketCap data. Over the last three months, the crypto industry is estimated to have lost $204 million (roughly Rs. 1,692 crore) to crypto hacks. Out of the stolen funds, $4.9 million (roughly Rs. 40 crore) were recovered.

Interacting with shady links promising crypto airdrops or giveaways could expose people to losing their crypto holdings. As per Web3 security firm Beosin, total losses from hacks, phishing scams, and rug pulls in Web3 has already reached $655.61 million (roughly Rs. 5,420 crore) in the first half of 2023.

After US-based online payments giant PayPal launched its PYUSD stablecoin this week, over 60 scam tokens mimicking the original stablecoin were spotted by crypto analysts. Members of the crypto community were quick to warn each other against engaging with these malicious tokens.