Hacked Twitter Account of OpenAI CTO Promotes Crypto Scam

The Twitter account of Mira Murati, the Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI, was recently hacked, promoting a 'scam' cryptocurrency airdrop. The ‘scam’ tweet was live for an hour and has now been taken down.

Scammers Becoming Sophisticated

Murati’s Twitter account posted a supposed phishing link of a scam mimicking the popular OpenAI product, ChatGPT. Additionally, the post promised the airdrop of a purported ERC-20 token OPENAI.

🚨 Twitter account belonging to OpenAI CTO Mira Murati got hacked by crypto scammers 🚨 pic.twitter.com/k3oWsDo3cI

Murati is a verified Twitter user with over 126,200 followers on the platform. The fraudulent post from her account was viewed 79,600 times and retweeted 83 times before it was taken down. However, there is no evidence of any victims of the scam.

The scammers were sophisticated enough to restrict the comments on the fraudulent post from Murati’s account, stopping the community from pointing it out as a scam. However, many well-known Twitter handles flagged the tweet as a scam and warned the community not to fall for the bait.

Someone has gained access to Mira Murati's Twitter account (OpenAI CTO). pic.twitter.com/XUlm9LhL8S

The fraudulent website shared in the tweet was a sophisticated copy of OpenAI’s website, with the same layouts and design and hardly any differentiators. The only tweaks were in the prompts connecting to a crypto wallet.

According to blockchain security firm Beosin, whose researcher talked to Cointelegraph, the scammers used a crypto wallet-draining kit that could drain the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and ERC-20 tokens out of the victims’ wallets once a request is signed.

Though there is no confirmation on how the Twitter account of a tech personality like Murati was hacked, some are pointing out that she was a victim of a SIM swap hack.

Someone has gained access to Mira Murati's Twitter account (OpenAI CTO). pic.twitter.com/XUlm9LhL8S

High-Profile Twitter Account Hacks

Murati is not the first technology expert whose Twitter account was compromised by attackers. In mid-2020, the Twitter accounts of several American politicians and business people were hacked to promote crypto scams. The victims included Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Kanye West, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk, who now owns and head Twitter. All of their accounts asked for cryptocurrencies with promises of doubling the amount.

Last month, a 23-year-old UK man pled guilty in a New York court for helping orchestrate a high-profile hack on Twitter accounts. He was extradited from Spain to the US in April.