In summary
- Recently, one of OpenAI’s official Twitter accounts was compromised to promote a fake cryptocurrency called $OPENAI.
- The account urged followers to claim non-existent tokens that would supposedly “bridge the gap” between blockchain technology and AI.
- This is the fourth similar incident in which OpenAI has fallen victim to cryptocurrency scams on Twitter.
Recently, OpenAI had one of its official Twitter accounts compromised to promote a fake cryptocurrency, this is the fourth time the GPT Chat developer has fallen for similar schemes.
The account urged followers to claim a non-existent token known as $OPENAI, which it said would “bridge the gap” between blockchain technology and AI.
“All OpenAI users are eligible to claim a portion of the initial $OPENAI supply,” the tweet read.
The now-deleted post said claiming the tokens would grant buyers “access to all of our future beta programs.”
Comments on the fake posts were disabled, perhaps an intentional move by the hackers to make the thread appear less suspicious.
OpenAI’s CTO Mira Murati also had her account compromised in June 2023, while the company’s chief scientist Jakub Pachocki suffered a similar incident in June 2024.
OpenAI researcher Jason Wei also had his account hacked in September 2024. In all cases, the hackers posted similar messages promoting tokens with the $OPENAI ticker.
Despite the company’s apparent popularity among cryptocurrency scammers, OpenAI has not publicly announced any crypto- or blockchain-related projects at the time of writing.
Unlike many high-profile Twitter hacks, the perpetrators did not attempt to promote a particular coin or airdrop to boost its value.
In OpenAI’s previous Twitter attacks, it appears the attackers used what’s known as a “wallet drainer,” a term used to refer to when unsuspecting users are tricked into entering their wallet details, stealing all valuables like cryptocurrency or non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Very few companies, regardless of size or technical expertise, seem to be immune to having their Twitter pages taken hostage to promote coins.
Last week, Brazilian soccer star Neymar Jr, computer manufacturer Lenovo, and Oscar-winning film director Oliver Stone had their accounts hacked for promoting the Solana-based memecoin called $HACKED.
In 2020, Bitcoin scammers compromised the websites of President Barack Obama, Apple, Uber, and rapper Kanye West in what may have been the largest scam of its kind at the time.
Decrypt has reached out to OpenAI for comment. The company has yet to comment on the breach at the time of writing.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
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