The official OpenAI press account on X has been compromised by cryptocurrency scammers. At least, that seems to be the case. On Monday afternoon, the OpenAI Newsroom account posted about a made-up cryptocurrency called $OPENAI. It said users could get free coins just by connecting their crypto wallets. But it was all a trick to steal people’s login info!
This isn’t the first time scammers have hacked into accounts connected to OpenAI. Back in June, they took over the account of OpenAI’s top scientist. And just a few months ago, two other employees’ accounts were used to post similar fake currency messages. The scammers use sneaky tools to automatically move any coins victims had in their wallets to the scammers’ wallet once they log in.
The post on X linked to a phony OpenAI website asking people to “Claim $OPENAI” buttons. But the URL was wrong, so it wasn’t the real site. Comments were turned off on the post so fewer people would notice something was wrong. OpenAI and X are looking into what happened.
Crypto scams are a big problem. In 2023, Americans lost $5.6 billion according to the FBI. And so far in 2024, over 50,000 scams have been reported to have taken $2.5 billion from people. Even big famous accounts from Apple, Elon Musk, and more have been hacked to run similar bitcoin scams before.
We’ll have to stay alert as scammers keep finding new ways to trick people. In the meantime, OpenAI will need to tighten up security on all their accounts so these thieves can’t strike again!
