The CEO of The Sandbox, a Minecraft like metaverse project, was hacked yesterday. Arthur Madrid’s hacked Twitter account was then used to launch a scam to post about a fake airdrop.
Fake Sandbox airdrop
Madrid, CEO and co-founder of the blockchain game, has now regained control of his account. In his message on Twitter, he warns that one should never click on links that promote airdrops and look suspicious. The only authority people can trust about a sandbox airdrop is if they use the official link: sandbox.game.
My Twitter was hacked today. and now it’s back. Please never click on any link that promote Airdrop or URL and look SCAMMY – and not 100% using our proper and unique URL/domain name : https://t.co/X3rXN9z8z7
— Arthur Madrid (@arthurmadrid) May 26, 2023
However, The fraudulent message contained a link that closely resembled the official site. The message encouraged users to join one SAND airdrop. However, the airdrop was a so-called phishing scam intended to collect and sell user data. The site to which the link led was reported and taken offline after quick action by The Sandbox. However, the CEO does not say how Madrid’s Twitter account was hacked.
Series of Twitter hacks
Hacked Twitter accounts are common. In April 2023, the Twitter account of crypto exchange KuCoin was hacked. Several users who fell for the scam lost crypto as a result. Although the account was only hacked for 45 minutes, there is more than $22,000 in it BTC and ETH lost to the scammers. It also fell earlier Latoken Twitter accountthe accounts from Target and Google and even the account of the Prime Minister of India prey to scammers.
In the past year, Americans lost, according to it Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) $2.57 billion in crypto fraud. That is considerably more than in 2021, when a total of ‘only’ 907 million dollars was lost to crypto scams. Scammers are getting more and more cunning, with new ways to get around social media platform and website security. The most important lesson is: never just give away your keys and only invest through applications that are known and comply with all laws and regulations.