Peter Schiff, the well-known bitcoin (BTC) critic, appeared in the Bitcoin news last week in a way that few people believed beforehand. Usually when the CEO of Euro Pacific Capital occupies the front page, he is speaking negatively about bitcoin and the overall crypto market. This time he embraces the network to some extent with the launch of his own non-fungible token (NFT) collection on the Bitcoin blockchain. This slight interest in the crypto world now appears to have been exploited by scammers.
Bitcoin skeptic targeted by scammers
Schiff’s Twitter account was hacked and used to promote a fake token called ‘GOLD’. The news of this hack came to light when it got on Twitter announced by none other than his own son, Spencer Schiff.
Spencer has a completely different view of the crypto industry than his father and even went in 2021 all inclusive on BTC. At the same time, Peter Schiff has managed to manifest himself in recent years as a well-known Bitcoin hater who prefers gold.
The scammers used Schiff’s Twitter account to post a fake GOLD presale to promote. Blockfence confirmed on Twitter that the transactions from the link would lead to a so-called wallet drain and so, like Peter Schiff’s son, it advised not to click the link.
⚠️Warning⚠️@PeterSchiff‘s twitter got compromised. Scammers are using it to promote a fake $GOLD presale. However, note that a presale smart contract is likely not an EOA (Externally Owned Account) as been detected by Blockfence. Confirming this tx would lead to a wallet drain! pic.twitter.com/Nvzc3xuWFj
— Blockfence (@blockfence_io) June 3, 2023
Perfect timing
You could argue that the hack is perfect timing to make it as believable as possible. Despite the fact that after the launch of his NFT collection on Bitcoin, Schiff stated that he has not changed his opinion on Bitcoin, many investors will interpret the launch in a different way.
In addition, the hackers are using his reputation as a huge gold proponent to ‘launch’ a gold-related altcoin. This combination, with the ‘crypto adoption’ of the well-known critic on the one hand and his love for the precious metal on the other, makes the promotion seem a lot more credible.
In an earlier response to Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the CEO of Binance, clarified Schiff again that his view on Bitcoin has not changed despite the Bitcoin Ordinals embrace.