Crypto scammers target Indian Premier League team to promote Solana token

Hackers Target Delhi Capitals’ X Account to Promote Scam Token

The Delhi Capitals, a prominent cricket team in the Indian Premier League, recently suffered a breach of their X account. Hackers seized control to promote a fraudulent Solana-based token named HACKER to the team’s 2.6 million followers.

In the now-deleted posts, the attackers admitted to the hack and outlined their strategy to generate profits by hijacking other X accounts, aiming to inflate the price of the newly launched HACKER token, which appeared on decentralized exchange screens just a day prior. They claimed, “We hack accounts on each account the token address will be posted and the token will pump.”

This type of scam is not uncommon, as fraudsters exploit the significant follower counts of well-known accounts to push questionable crypto tokens. Their goal is to artificially boost the token’s price and then offload their holdings, leaving unsuspecting investors to face losses when the price collapses.

The hackers continued to post similar messages, sharing the token’s contract address and urging followers to “search $HACKER to see our strength.” Fortunately, the Delhi Capitals management was able to regain control of their account shortly after the incident.

Searching for “$HACKER” on X revealed posts from another compromised account, which shared screenshots of similar attacks on other high-profile accounts, including the South Korean esports team T1. These posts echoed the same tactics but referenced different contract addresses.

However, the HACKER token did not gain significant traction, as it had a mere market cap of $4,300 and only 46 transactions at the time of reporting, with most of these appearing to be executed by the attackers themselves shortly after launch.

Growing Concerns Over X’s Security Measures

This incident highlights a troubling trend where scammers increasingly target prominent X accounts to promote deceptive crypto tokens, raising serious concerns about the platform’s security. Despite the rising frequency of these breaches, X has yet to provide a robust response.

Earlier in September, the accounts of Lara and Tiffany Trump were similarly compromised, misleading users into purchasing a fraudulent token linked to former President Donald Trump’s decentralized finance project, World Liberty Financial. Just days prior, French soccer star Kylian Mbappé’s account was hacked, facilitating a pump-and-dump scheme involving a token named MBAPPE.