I
know
this
will
come
as
a
shock
to
many
of
you,
but
scammers
have
once
again
succeeded
in
stealing
a
lot
of
money
from
cryptocurrency
investors.
The
Twitter
account
of
American
DJ
and
electronic
music
producer
Steve
Aoki,
who
is
considered
something
of
an
“influencer”
in
the
world
of
cryptocurrency,
lies
at
the
heart
of
the
scam.
According
to
a
tweet
posted
by
self-proclaimed
blockchain
sleuth
ZachXBT,
a
hack
of
Aoki’s
Twitter
account
cost
cryptoinvestors
thousands
of
dollars.
As
ZachXBT
described,
Steve
Aoki’s
Twitter
account
had
posted
a
message
saying
that
the
DJ
was
backing
the
launch
of
a
new
cryptocurrency
token,
called
PSYOP.
The
person
behind
PSYOP,
the
pseudonymous
NFT
collector
Ben.eth,
was
tagged
in
the
message
–
presumably
to
ensure
that
they
noticed
the
tweet.
One
can
only
assume
that
Ben.eth
believed
the
post
to
be
a
legitimate
post
from
Aoki’s
account,
and
that
is
why
they
quote-tweeted
the
untrustworthy
message,
which
no
doubt
encouraged
even
more
cryptocurrency
enthusiasts
to
follow
the
link
and
jump
on
the
PSYOP
train.
So,
what
we
have
here
is
a
cryptocurrency
influencer
with
eight
million
followers
having
their
Twitter
account
compromised
by
hackers,
in
order
to
post
a
message
that
deliberately
baited
another
cryptocurrency
celebrity
to
retweeet
it.
All
with
the
aim
of
scamming
cryptocurrency
enthusiasts.
An
estimated
$170,000
worth
of
cryptocurrency
was
lost
due
to
the
scam.
When
the
problem
was
pointed
out
to
Ben.eth,
they
deleted
their
quote-tweet
and
posted:
“I
DID
NOT
KNOW
AOKI
WAS
HACKED.
HOW
COULD
I?”
In
a
subsequent
tweet,
Ben.eth
invited
those
who
had
lost
money
in
the
scam
to
make
contact
via
email
so
that
their
lost
Ethereum
could
be
replaced.
It’s
not
currently
known
how
Steve
Aoki’s
Twitter
account
was
compromised,
but
I
don’t
think
anyone
would
be
surprised
if
poor
password
security
practices
or
a
lack
of
two-factor
authentication
laid
at
the
heart
of
the
problem.
For
his
part,
Steve
Aoki
has
deleted
the
unauthorised
tweet
but
not
posted
an
apology
or
warning
to
his
many
millions
of
followers.
To
reduce
the
chances
of
their
accounts
being
compromised
by
hackers,
users
would
be
wise
to
take
the
following
steps:
-
Ensure
that
a
unique,
hard-to-crack
password
is
used
to
secure
the
account. -
Enable
two-factor
authentication
to
introduce
a
second
layer
of
defence
to
your
Twitter
account. -
Review
what
third-party
apps
have
access
to
your
Twitter
account,
and
revoke
their
access
to
prevent
them
from
making
unauthorised
posts
on
your
behalf.
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