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PSA: Vertcoin’s Twitter Account Has Been Hijacked by Scammers

Last Updated March 4, 2021 5:07 PM
Josiah Wilmoth
Last Updated March 4, 2021 5:07 PM

The official Twitter account for cryptocurrency project Vertcoin has been compromised by scammers, developers confirmed on Tuesday.

Shortly after 20:00 UTC, Vertcoin’s Twitter account tweeted that the coin’s developers were holding a 10 bitcoin giveaway and that users should send 0.005 BTC to a specific address to enter the contest.

https://twitter.com/Vertcoin/status/991410217173696512

The tweet immediately raised suspicions among community members, as developers had not announced it elsewhere and it bore similarities to the numerous cryptocurrency giveaway scams that have pervaded Twitter for several months.

Those suspicions were confirmed shortly afterward when Vertcoin lead developer James Lovejoy tweeted from his personal account that the Vertcoin account had been compromised. “DO NOT accept any giveaways,” he wrote,” they are all fake.”

https://twitter.com/jamesl22/status/991409807759421440

At the time of writing, the scammer’s bitcoin address  had received less than 0.007 BTC, worth approximately $61. Moreover, only a single transaction sent the 0.005 BTC advertised as necessary to enter the giveaway, making it likely that at most one unwitting user has fallen prey to the ploy.

The tweet had not been removed as of 21:54 UTC, though the scammers have also refrained from publishing subsequent posts in the project’s feed. It is unclear whether they have sent any private messages while in control of the account.

As CCN.com reported, cryptocurrency scams have run rampant on Twitter in recent months, despite assurances from CEO Jack Dorsey that the company is working to remove them from the platform.

Typically, the attackers create false accounts that mimic well-known industry figures and companies and reply to the official account’s tweets in an attempt to trick naive users into sending them cryptocurrency.

However, the social media giant has also contributed to the problem as well. Last month, Twitter inadvertently verified a scammer-controlled account that pretended to be the official account for cryptocurrency project Verge.

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