Avoid the Phantom Crypto Wallet Scam: Mandiant Hijacked and Used to Promote Fake Airdrop

The US-based cybersecurity firm Mandiant has been the victim of a malicious takeover as their Twitter account was hijacked earlier today to impersonate the Phantom crypto wallet and promote a harmful cryptocurrency scam.

BleepingComputer has confirmed that Mandiant is aware of the incident and is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

What We Know About the Phantom Crypto Wallet Scam

After taking control of Mandiant’s Twitter account, the hacker changed the name to @phantomsolw and began sharing a fake website promising to distribute free $PHNTM tokens as part of an airdrop.

Anyone who clicked on the ‘Claim Aidrop’ button without having the Phantom Wallet installed would be redirected to the legitimate site and prompted to install the wallet. Once installed, it would try to automatically drain the target’s cryptocurrency wallets. It is important to note that the Phantom wallet has now disabled any interaction with the scammer’s website in order to protect users and their funds.

Furthermore, the hacker trolled Mandiant by retweeting posts from the official Phantom account, such as ones advising users to “never rush into clicking links,” likely in order to add legitimacy to future crypto-scam posts.

Mandiant’s original Twitter handle, @mandiant, now displays a “This account doesn’t exist” error message.

Update: Mandiant Regains Control of Account

Mandiant has reported that they have regained control of the account and is now working on restoring it. However, at the time of this update, the username is still showing as ‘@phantomsolw’.

Conclusion

Cryptocurrency scams are growing in popularity, which is why it is essential to be aware of the different types of scams and how to identify when something is suspicious. In this case, users should be wary of any posts claiming to offer free cryptocurrency tokens, especially on hijacked Twitter accounts.