Don’t Fall For The Scam: The OpenAI Team Has Not Issued An Official Token

Contrary to a fleeting assertion made on a corporate executive’s Twitter page, the architects behind ChatGPT have not embarked on issuing a cryptocurrency token. This erroneous claim, initially appearing on the Twitter page of OpenAI Chief Technology Officer, Mira Murati, was later revealed as the fallout of a regrettable security breach.

The Perpetrator’s Play: The False OpenAI Crypto Token

Thursday saw an unexpected violation of Murati’s Twitter account, turning it into a platform for publicizing a deceptive cryptocurrency token, allegedly endorsed by the company. This fabricated token, ‘OPENAI’, was touted as a “revolutionary token propelled by language models rooted in artificial intelligence.”

Despite its brief lifespan of approximately an hour, the fraudulent tweet amassed significant attention, clocking in at 80,000 views before its eventual removal.

What made this scam increasingly cunning was including a link to a professionally designed phishing website, meticulously mirroring a legitimate project, ChainGPT. This project is renowned for offering an AI-driven chatbot service specifically for cryptocurrency and blockchain-related information.

The counterfeit iteration came with subtle changes, most notably inviting visitors to tether their cryptocurrency wallets. However, investigations have revealed that this deceptive prompt was used to hoodwink potential investors into transaction signing requests. These requests paved the way for the hacker to stealthily transfer Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and ERC-20 tokens from the unsuspecting victim’s wallet.

Quieting the Voices of Warning: The Role of Restricted Replies

Adding another layer of deception, the spurious tweet originating from Murati’s account incorporated restricted replies. That effectively complicated the efforts of followers to caution others about the tweet’s fraudulent nature. Until now, Murati has remained silent about the incident, leaving her account devoid of any explanatory statements.

Scam Sniffer, a notable watchdog in the cryptocurrency sector, attributes this unscrupulous OpenAI hack to a serial phishing scammer known as “Pink Drainer.” This cybercriminal has a history of dubious activities, having secured a staggering $110,000 from this hack. The scammer has swindled $1.8 million from more than 500 victims since May 30.

The Ubiquity of Phishing Scams on Crypto Twitter

Twitter’s cryptocurrency community has become infamous for being a hotbed of phishing scams, primarily perpetrated using spam bots. These bots inundate reply sections of industry influencers, making them attractive targets for fraudsters. Elon Musk has pledged to alleviate this problem via Twitter’s novel verification program partially.

Impersonation is a common technique employed in these scams, with high-profile personalities often being the target. The biggest scandal of this nature unfolded in July 2020, when a significant breach saw over 130 distinguished accounts hacked, including Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Barrack Obama, and others. 

These accounts encouraged users to send Bitcoin to a particular address with the deceptive promise of a 2:1 return.

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