MicroStrategy's X account hacked, $440,000 loss in phishing scam. Fake $MSTR airdrop on Ethereum. Company regains control. Latest post promotes AI integrations.
Recently, the X account of business intelligence firm MicroStrategy fell victim to a breach, where the intruder shared links to a counterfeit Ethereum token airdrop of an "$MSTR" token.
According to reports, the hack has caused damages exceeding $440,000 as per an investigation conducted by on-chain investigator ZachXBT, who disclosed the suspected wallet address of the threat actor.
A crypto skeptic known as "cobie" remarked privately that the phishing scam seemed evident given MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor's recent optimistic remarks regarding Bitcoin.
As of the time of writing, it seems that the posts referred to in the discussion have been removed, suggesting that MicroStrategy has likely regained control of their X account. The most recent update from the account dates back to February 21, with the company promoting its latest AI integrations.
The links provided in the fake Ethereum airdrop redirect users to a counterfeit MicroStrategy webpage, prompting them to link their wallet and claim the fake "$MSTR" airdrop. It's important to note that this is unrelated to the firm's stock listing on Nasdaq under the same "$MSTR" ticker symbol. The stock concluded the previous week at $687, experiencing a 3.6% decrease over a 24-hour period.
If a user grants permissions and logs into the web application with their Web3 wallet, the attacker gains access to the user's tokens, effectively depleting their funds.
According to Scam Sniffer, a Web3 anti-scam platform, the primary target of the phishing attack lost over $420,000 around 7:43 EST, just minutes after the link was shared on X. The lost funds comprised various tokens ($134,000 from Wrapped Balance AI (wBAI), $122,000 from Chintai (CHEX), and $45,000 from Wrapped Pocket Network (wPOKT).
The funds were swiftly transferred to the attacker's wallet, followed by two additional transfers that were automatically redirected to a secondary wallet, which was identified due to its association with the PinkDrainer hacking group. Presently, the threat actor's wallet contains over $329,000 worth of tokens from Ethereum, Polygon, and the previously mentioned tokens. MicroStrategy has yet to release an official statement regarding the incident.