McDonald’s, the global fast food giant, recently fell victim to a major cyberattack on its official Instagram account. Hackers reportedly took control of the account and used it to orchestrate a sophisticated cryptocurrency scam that reportedly netted the scammers $700,000.
The cybercriminals behind the attack posted a fraudulent message on McDonald’s Instagram, falsely claiming that the company was giving away cryptocurrency. The post included a link to a phishing website, designed to steal users’ personal information and cryptocurrency wallet credentials. Thousands of unsuspecting followers, believing the message to be genuine, clicked on the link and shared their sensitive data, leading to significant financial losses.
The hacked post also included offensive language, including a racial slur, and claimed responsibility for the scam. The message, which has since been deleted, read: “Sorry black India_X_Kr3w just made fun of you. Thanks for the $700k in Solana.”
In response to the incident, McDonald’s issued a statement acknowledging the violation. “We are aware of an isolated incident affecting our social media accounts earlier today,” the company said. “We have resolved the issue on those accounts and apologize to our fans for any offensive language posted during that time.”
The type of scam that was executed in this incident is known as a “rug pull” scam. Common in the cryptocurrency and NFT markets, a rug pull scam occurs when developers create a new cryptocurrency or NFT project, promote it to attract investors, and then abruptly abandon the project, taking the invested funds with them. The term “rug pull” refers to the sudden and unexpected nature of the scam, similar to someone pulling the rug out from under someone else, leaving them off balance and adrift.
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