Decentraland’s X account hacked, scammers push fake MANA airdrop

The X account of virtual reality-focused project Decentraland was compromised earlier today for the purpose of promoting phishing links.

According to a PeckSheild alert, on September 19, crypto scammers took over Decentraland’s X account to launch a fake fundraiser for its native token MANA, but it was ultimately revealed to be a phishing campaign targeting the project’s 607,000+ followers.

Ironically, the scammers also disabled comments on their posts, claiming this was to prevent ‘malicious links’.

Scammers send malicious link to official Decentraland X account | Source: PeckSheild

The now-deleted posts first appeared around 01:50 UTC and promoted a malicious website branded as Decentraland. Users were redirected to launch-decentraland[.org] They were asked to request the airdrop by connecting their wallets on their website.

Typically in such a scenario, users are asked to sign a malicious blockchain transaction, which hands control of the wallet to the malicious actor and allows them to drain any existing crypto or other assets.

After the initial posts were deleted, two more similar posts were made, this time promoting a different website: token-decentraland[.]org and as of the time of writing these posts continue to exist.

Pinned post from Decentraland’s X account promotes a phishing link | Source: Decentraland.

It’s unclear how many users have been affected by this campaign so far, but PeckShield has urged users to avoid interacting with Decentraland’s X account. Based on recent activity, it appears the VR platform has yet to regain control of the account.

The crypto space has become the new hunting ground for phishing scammers

Several notable crypto projects have been targeted by scammers recently, as phishing scams led to losses of at least $63 million in August alone. For example, Polygon’s Discord channel was compromised last month and phishing links were shared, reminiscent of a similar attack on liquid takeover platform Renzo earlier in the year.

Meanwhile, individual traders were not spared either, with one major DAI investor losing $55 million in seconds, while an NFT trader lost more than $145,000 on Bored Ape Yacht Club collectibles just a few months ago.

The common denominator across all these attacks has been victims signing malicious transactions. This is what cybersecurity experts call ‘confirmed phishing’ and has led to more than $2.7 billion in losses since 2021, according to Chainalysis.

These scams are mostly prevalent on social media platforms like X and Telegram. SlowMist’s research shows that more than 80% of comments under posts from official crypto projects contain phishing links.

As scams become more sophisticated, the need for vigilance has never been greater. Crypto enthusiasts must stay informed and exercise caution when interacting online.

In response to these growing threats, cryptocurrency wallets like MetaMask have stepped forward by integrating new security features that aim to protect users from falling victim to such attacks.