OpenAI CTO’s Twitter account hijacked to promote crypto scam

The Twitter account of Mira Murati, OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer, fell victim to an apparent hack on June 2. The attacker exploited her Twitter to promote a deceptive crypto airdrop.

Murati found her account used to advertise a fraudulent cryptocurrency airdrop. The post, which purported to offer an ERC-20 token named OPENAI, led to a phishing link.

As a respected figure in the AI field, Murati commands an audience of 126,200 Twitter followers, all of whom could potentially fall victim to the scam. The deceptive post remained active for about an hour, accumulating 79,600 views and 83 retweets before it was eventually deleted.

The fact that the tweet’s author had restricted reply access hampered users’ ability to warn others of the fraudulent link.

The incident set off alarms among crypto enthusiasts on Twitter. The suspicious activity led some Twitter users to speculate that Murati had been targeted in a SIM-swapping attack.

The website linked in the deceptive tweet was carefully crafted, borrowing heavily from the design of an existing crypto-focused AI ChainGPT. However, subtle changes were made, primarily by adding a prompt for users to connect their crypto wallets, exposing them to potential security risks.

At the time of writing, Murati has restored access to her account and deleted the tweets. The website chaingpt.build, mentioned by a scammer, is also restricted.