Home » Technology » An official OpenAI X account was taken over to peddle a crypto scam

Share This Post

Technology

An official OpenAI X account was taken over to peddle a crypto scam

An official OpenAI X account was taken over to peddle a crypto scam

/

OpenAI’s Newsroom account made a post advertising an OpenAI-themed crypto token and pointed to a sketchy website.

Share this story

Vector illustration of the Chat GPT logo.

An official OpenAI account on X was taken over to peddle a cryptocurrency scam on Monday evening.

On Monday at 6:24PM ET, the @OpenAINewsroom account, which shares news from OpenAI and has nearly 54,000 followers, made a now-deleted post advertising an “$OPENAI” token.

“We’re very happy to announce $OPEANAI: the token bridging the gap between Al and blockchain technology,” the post said. “All OpenAI users are eligible to claim a piece of $OPENAI’s initial supply. Holding $OPENAI will grant access to all of our future beta programs.” The post also included a link to a spoofed version of OpenAI’s website at a URL that wasn’t openai.com.

A screenshot of two posts from the hijacked OpenAI Newsroom account.

A screenshot of two posts from the hijacked OpenAI Newsroom account.

a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

When I visited the site, there was a section for claiming the $OPENAI cryptocurrency. When I clicked the button, it asked me to connect a wallet, which I didn’t do.

A screenshot from the spoofed OpenAI website shilling cryptocurrency.

A screenshot from the spoofed OpenAI website shilling cryptocurrency.

a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

OpenAI and X didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. As of this writing, the OpenAI Newsroom account hasn’t posted anything to explain what might have happened. The account launched at the beginning of this month.

Share This Post

Leave a Reply