Cryptocurrency hackers hacked McDonald’s official Instagram account and carried out a scam known as ‘Rug pull’, stealing more than $700,000.
THE HACKERS, BY EXPLOITING THE TRUST OF THE 5 MILLION FOLLOWERS, ADVERTISED A FAKE CRYPTOCURRENCY CALLED ‘GRIMACE’ ON SOLANA’S NETWORK. The currency briefly appreciated to $25 million.
‘Rug pull’ is a scam in the cryptocurrency world, where developers or project developers create a digital currency or a project on blockchain technology, and work to promote it intensively to attract investors. After a large number of people buy the currency or invest in the project, the developers suddenly withdraw all available funds, causing the value of the digital currency to collapse and leaving investors with worthless assets.
This process is dangerous because it exploits the trust that investors place in the project or currency, and often occurs in new projects or cryptocurrencies with a low market capitalization, as developers can quickly carry out these scams before investors can realize what is happening.
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McDonald’s account hacked
The hackers, who called themselves ‘India X Kr3w’, modified McDonald’s Instagram account (NYSE:MCD) to broadcast an advertisement regarding the fraudulent digital currency.
In just 30 minutes, the value of the fictitious ‘GRIMACE’ currency rose rapidly. However, the hackers withdrew the money, causing the value of the currency to fall to almost zero.
The hacker posted a message on McDonald’s Instagram account after the scam was carried out: ‘Sorry, you were defrauded by India_X_Kr3w, thanks for the $700,000.’
Scams of this type involve greatly inflating the value of the cryptocurrency before developers withdraw their funds, leaving other investors with worthless assets.
The social media accounts of Guillaume Hoyin, McDonald’s senior marketing manager, appear to have been hacked as well. ADS PROMOTING GRIMACE WERE POSTED ON HIS PERSONAL ACCOUNTS, SHOWING THE FICTITIOUS COIN AS AN OFFICIAL MCDONALD’S PROJECT ON THE SOLANA NETWORK.
HOYAN’S ACCOUNT PROMISED THAT MCDONALD’S WOULD FOLLOW GRIMACE COIN HOLDERS WHO REGISTERED THEIR INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS, LEGITIMIZING THE SCAM AND INCREASING ITS IMPACT.
SOME USERS HAVE TRADED GRIMACE IN AN ATTEMPT TO MAKE QUICK GAINS. As a result, trading volume has reached more than $25 million in the past 24 hours.
After the hack, McDonald’s regained control of its Instagram account and deleted all content related to the fictitious currency. Although the account has been restored, this hack reflects the ongoing risks in the cryptocurrency market.
Hacking doubles the value of hacking operations
Chinalysis reported that the value of cryptocurrency hacking nearly doubled to $1.6 billion in the first seven months of 2024, as a result of rising crypto asset prices.
In its report, blockchain technology data specialist Chinalysis noted that the value of stolen money has risen despite the fact that the number of attacks has only seen a slight increase, reaching 149 hacks so far in 2024, compared to 145 during the same period of 2024.
Eric Jardin, head of cybercrime research at Chinalysis, said the significant increase in the prices of many crypto assets in 2024 could be the reason behind the rise in the value of stolen money.
Bitcoin saw a record high to around $74K in March after a number of exchange-traded funds launched spot bitcoin in the US in January.
Chinalysis noted that Bitcoin accounted for 40% of the total proceeds of cryptocurrency thefts this year.
2022 saw a record $3.7 billion in cryptocurrencies stolen, as hackers took advantage of poor levels of security, while these figures fell to $1.7 billion in 2023 as decentralized institutions strengthened their security measures and cryptocurrency prices continued to fall.
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