OpenAI's official press account on X (formerly Twitter) was recently compromised by cryptocurrency fraudsters, who previously hacked the accounts of several company leaders. The attack, which occurred late Monday, involved the posting of a fraudulent message advertising a fake blockchain token called "$OPENAI." This hoax was designed to lure users to a phishing site and steal their credentials.
The attack and its strategy
The OpenAI Newsroom account, created to share product and policy-related announcements, was used to disseminate a post promoting the non-existent "$OPENAI"" token. The message claimed that all OpenAI users could claim a share of this token, which would give them access to future beta programs from the company. However, the token does not exist and the post included a link to a phishing site that mimicked the legitimate OpenAI website, but with a fake URL: "token-openai.com".
This fake site prompted users to connect their cryptocurrency wallets via a prominent "CLAIM $OPENAI" button. It is suspected that the goal of the scammers was to obtain users' login credentials in order to steal funds from their wallets. Although the fraud was evident, the X-posting and the fake website remained active at the time of this posting.
An attack that is not isolated
This is not the first hacking incident related to OpenAI. In June 2023, the account of Mira Murati, the company's CTO, was hacked with a similar message promoting the same fake token "$OPENAI". Likewise, the profiles of other leaders, such as Jakub Pachocki and Jason Wei, were compromised to post identical scams in previous months.
Attacks on high-profile X accounts, such as those of OpenAI, celebrities and large companies, have been a recurring problem in recent years. In 2020, a celebrity attack affected accounts of Apple, Elon Musk and Joe Biden, posting a bitcoin-related scam.
According to the FBI, Americans lost $5.6 billion in 2023 due to cryptocurrency-related scams, a 45% increase over the previous year. By 2024, the trend continues with more than 50,000 scams reported in the first half of the year alone, with losses approaching $2.5 billion, according to the FTC.
