Crypto scammers hijack Truth Terminal founder’s X account

Crypto scammers hijacked the X account of Truth Terminal creator Andy Ayrey to promote a dubious meme coin.

At press time, the account remains in control of the crypto scammers who managed to make over $600,000 by shilling a token dubbed Infinite Backrooms (IB), named after an AI chatroom experiment that ultimately led to the creation of the AI-powered X account Truth Terminal.

The hacker first announced the token in a now-deleted post on Oct. 29, via a cryptic post, promoting IB using the AI Chatroom project’s catchphrase “the mad dreams of an electric mind,” along with a contract address for the token.

Unsuspecting users rushed to make a quick buck out of the newest cryptocurrency in the market and managed to push the token’s valuation as high as $25 million at its peak, per Dexscreener data. Subsequently, the scammers dumped 124.6 million IB acquired before promoting the token, less than an hour after launch, and made away with $602,500.

At press time, the token’s market cap had receded to less than $2.5 million, as word broke out that Ayrey’s X account was compromised.

The scammers remained in control when writing, and have promoted a Telegram group dubbed “Solana printers” and teased the launch of another token. 

To build hype around the launch, the bad actors promised an airdrop of the upcoming token to anyone who shared and promoted his Telegram group, which had a little over 1600 members at publication time.  

Ayrey made waves in the crypto space after his a16z-backed AI bot, “Truth Terminal,” endorsed a meme coin called Goatseus Maximus (GOAT), which was created as part of an internet meme-inspired “religion” the bot proposed.

Created on the Solana-based token deployer Pump.fun, the token surged past $850 million as major exchanges like Binance listed it. Since then, both Truth Terminal and Ayrey have gained a dedicated following within the crypto space.

X accounts targeted by scammers

Infiltrating X accounts to promote scam tokens has become a recurring trend within the crypto space. From high-profile celebrities to prominent crypto projects, the back-to-back exploits have highlighted serious security vulnerabilities and raised concerns about X’s ability to protect users from targeted scams.

Although the platform has managed to recover compromised accounts, the recent attack highlights that the underlying issue persists.