OpenAI’s official X press account has been compromised by cryptocurrency scammers. At least, that’s what it appears to be.
Late Monday afternoon, OpenAI Newsroom, an account recently created by OpenAI to feature product and policy-related announcements, posted about a supposedly new OpenAI-branded blockchain token called $OPENAI.
“[$OPEANAI bridges] “Bridging the gap between AI and blockchain technology,” the post reads. “All OpenAI users will be eligible to claim a portion of the initial supply of $OPENAI. Holding $OPENAI will grant you access to all upcoming beta programs.”
Image credit: X
The problem is, $OPENAI doesn't exist. X's post linked to a phishing site designed to mimic the legitimate OpenAI website (except for the prominent URL “token-openai.com”). A prominent “CLAIM $OPENAI” button on the fake site urged unsuspecting users to connect their cryptocurrency wallets, presumably in an attempt to steal users' login credentials.
Image credit: X
At the time of publication, the post and the site were still live, along with reposts and replies promising “more information” about the token.[to] It is expected to be published later this week.” Additionally, comments on the malicious OpenAI Newsroom post have been disabled, making the hack less noticeable.
We have reached out to OpenAI and X for comment and will update this article if we hear back.
This is not the first time that accounts associated with OpenAI have been compromised as part of a phishing campaign.
In June 2023, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's account posted a similar message promoting the fictitious $OPENAI crypto token, and just three months ago, the accounts of OpenAI Chief Scientist Jakub Paczocki and OpenAI researcher Jason Wei were hacked and used to publish scam posts identical to those posted by the OpenAI Newsroom account today.
Coinspeaker reported on the hack of Murati's account in June of last year, reporting that the scammers used a “crypto drain” tool to drain all NFTs and tokens in the victim's wallet into the scammers' wallet once the victim signed in to a fake OpenAI site.
In recent years, well-known X-accounts belonging to tech companies and celebrities have been hacked to facilitate cryptocurrency scams. In perhaps the most infamous example, hackers targeted the accounts of Apple, Elon Musk, and Joe Biden in 2020, forcing them to post their Bitcoin wallet addresses, claiming that any money paid to those addresses would be doubled and refunded.
According to the FBI, Americans will lose $5.6 billion to cryptocurrency scams in 2023, a 45% increase from 2022. 2024 is expected to be just as bad, if not worse. According to the FTC, more than 50,000 scams have been reported through the first half of this year, costing consumers nearly $2.5 billion.