More than 30 channels of small and big crypto YouTubers and some Indian crypto exchanges were compromised in a coordinated attack carried out by a group of anonymous hackers. Some of these channels are: @IvanOnTech,@boxmining,@aantonop,@themooncarl,@Bitboy_Crypto, @mmcrypto, @Altcoinbuzzio, @FloydMayweather, @crypto_banter, @CoinMarketCap, and Indian exchanges including CoinDCX, WazirX, and Unocoin.
The anonymous group hacked these channels, and without the creator’s authorization, a video was posted on the compromised accounts instructing viewers to deposit “USDT/USDC/BNB/ETH” to a wallet address listed in the video description in exchange for a new cryptocurrency named “OWCY.”
The scam did not inflict too much damage, according to BscScan. A total of 2.3 BNB was moved to the wallet address seen in the video. At the time of reporting, 15 transactions have been completed.
Michael Gu, the founder of the YouTube channel “Box mining,” revealed that his account had been hacked on Twitter. Gu claims to have activated two-factor authentication.
How were these Crypto Youtubers compromised?
According to a Reddit thread started by u/9Oh8m8, the hackers may have used a sim swapping technique to get around the two-factor authentication (2FA).
Unocoin and WazirX, two cryptocurrency exchanges, announced that hackers had taken control of their accounts in the early hours of Monday. “We can observe that our account has no external logins or activity.” “It appears as if YouTube has been hacked or if there was some rogue employee on their end who did this on purpose, or it is also conceivable that his computer was infiltrated,” said Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO of Uncoin.
According to Rajagopal Menon, VP Marketing, WazirX, informed that their crew discovered the scam video and removed it within 7 minutes of it becoming live on our channel.
Is there an end to these scams?
The specific method employed by the hackers to gain access to the YouTube channels is unknown at this time. Woefully the increasing amount of crypto adoption increases the chances of crypto scams.
According to a new report from CNBC, more than $14 billion in cryptocurrencies were stolen in 2021. The only thing to do is to avoid falling for the scams and ensure that we keep our funds safe.