dogwifhat’s X Account Hacked to Promote Fraudulent Meme Coins
Crypto scams are increasing as malicious actors impersonate prominent figures or exchanges. A recent incident involved the hacking of the Solana-based meme coin dogwifhat's X account.
The attacker accessed dogwifhat's X account and began promoting various meme coins, including Muu (MUU), Popwifnut (POPWNUT), and DogWifDoge (WIFD). They shared contract addresses to exploit the account’s influence and inflate demand for these tokens.
The first promoted token, MUU, experienced a rapid price surge shortly after its launch, reaching an all-time high. However, this increase was temporary, as the attackers sold their holdings, causing the price to drop significantly, resulting in losses for investors.
Similar outcomes occurred with POPWNUT and WIFD, which initially spiked in price but later plummeted by 84% and 74%, respectively, at the time of writing due to the scam.
Community and Security Teams Respond to Limit Damage
Community members quickly recognized the suspicious post, prompting alerts about the compromised account. The Web3 security firm Harpie confirmed the hijacking and advised followers against engaging with the posts. The dogwifhat development team regained control of the account, deleted the attacker's posts, and restored the original profile.
Despite the incident, the price of WIF (dogwifhat’s token) declined only slightly, by just over 12% in 24 hours, likely influenced by a 3% drop in Bitcoin during the same timeframe.
Recently, dogwifhat celebrated a significant milestone as WIF was listed on Coinbase, pushing the token above $4 for the first time since April.
The Growing Threat of Account Hijacking in Crypto
This attack is part of a broader trend where scammers increasingly target X accounts of notable individuals to promote fraudulent schemes. In September, the X account of Delhi Capitals was hijacked to promote fake Solana-based tokens. The fraudulent token had the ticker HACKER. Similarly, Kylian Mbappé's X account was taken over to market a fake token called $MBAPPE, resulting in a loss of $1 million for investors within one hour due to a pump and dump scheme.
The dogwifhat incident highlights the risks crypto investors face from hijacked social media accounts. As scams become more sophisticated, users must remain vigilant, scrutinize unusual posts from trusted accounts, and heed credible security warnings to avoid falling victim to these schemes.