Hackers compromise Uniswap founder’s Twitter account to promote scam

Crypto Twitter members were quick to identify and warn others about a scam pushed by Uniswap founder Hayden Adams’ compromised account.

The “Web3 Security Alerts” channel on Telegram notified followers that Adams’ Twitter account had been compromised on July 20. The Uniswap founder and CEO’s account posted a tweet to his more than 254,000 followers falsely claiming that the platform’s Permit2 contract had been “affected by an unknown exploit” and that users’ tokens were at risk, encouraging them to click on a malicious link.

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July 20 tweet sent by hackers from the Twitter account of Uniswap founder Hayden Adams. Source: Twitter

The first scam tweet only aired a few minutes before it was deleted, but several nearly identical tweets were posted as well. At the time of publication, many were still visible to Twitter users. Web3 Security Alerts reported that Adams was also blocked from his accounts with MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet.

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Bad actors using social media platforms to try to scam users of crypto or fiat assets is nothing new, but those behind the companies have tried to reduce the number and frequency of inconveniences. Twitter executive chairman Elon Musk announced on July 1 that the platform would temporarily restrict the number of posts that users will be allowed to read daily in an effort to “detect and weed out bots and other bad actors”.

On July 6, social media company Meta launched Threads, a microblogging app that is expected to rival Twitter. Although the platform reached over 100 million users within days, scammers promoting fake non-fungible token projects and impersonating other Crypto Twitter personalities have already surfaced.

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