Social media platform X is preparing a new security measure aimed at shutting down a widespread form of crypto phishing that leverages hijacked accounts to promote scam tokens.
The company will soon auto-lock any account that mentions cryptocurrency for the first time in its history, according to the company’s Head of Product Nikita Bier. Users will need to go through additional verification before being allowed to post again.
Bier said the feature targets the core incentive behind these attacks. “This should kill 99% of the incentive,” he wrote, referring to the current wave of phishing that tricks users into giving up their credentials, then uses their accounts to push crypto scams.
The change was unveiled in response to a detailed firsthand account from an X user who lost control of their account after falling for a phishing email disguised as a copyright violation notice.
The attacker, the user said, used a pixel-perfect fake login page to harvest two-factor codes, then locked the user out and began promoting fraudulent crypto projects from their account.
Crypto scams on X
These types of attacks have been extremely common on X, an inheritance from before it was acquired by Elon Musk and was still called Twitter.
One of the most common tactics is the “double your money” scam, in which users are told to send cryptocurrency in exchange for a promise of more. Others push fake memecoins or fraudulent airdrops, often using hijacked accounts to lend credibility.
Impersonation is one of the most powerful tools. Spoofed accounts impersonating major personalities have repeatedly tricked followers into clicking malicious links that mimic legitimate crypto platforms.
Cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible, so once a user falls for such an attack, their funds are gone.
The most infamous example came in 2020, when hackers accessed Twitter’s internal systems and took control of major accounts, including those of Apple, Barack Obama, and Elon Musk.
They used those accounts to promote a fake bitcoin giveaway, netting over $100,000 before the posts were removed. That breach, carried out through social engineering against Twitter employees, resulted in the hacker receiving a 5-year sentence.
X has made several attempts to bolster security. These have included bot purges, API restrictions, and behavioral detection. The latest move to auto-lock accounts that post about crypto for the first time builds on those efforts, aiming to cut off the tactic at its root: by making hijacked accounts useless for scams.
Bier also called out Google for failing to stop phishing emails at the email level, pointing the finger at the tech giant’s share of the responsibility for failing to protect its users from phishing attacks.