Key Takeaways
- The scam tweet urged Robinhood’s followers to each pay $0.0005 for a token called “RBH” on the BNB Smart Chain.
- Reportedly, at least 10 people had purchased $1,000 worth of the scam token before the tweet was removed.
On 25th January, Robinhood’s verified Twitter account, @Robinhoodapp, posted a scam tweet sparking concerns in the Twitter community. The scam tweet, which was later deleted, urged Robinhood’s 1.1 million followers to each pay $0.0005 for a token called “RBH” on the BNB Smart Chain.
“Reminder, we are launching our NEW TOKEN ($RBH) on the Binance Smart Chain. It will be live at 12 AM EST. You can be among the first to buy at a starting price of $0.0005.” The scam tweet also had a link to the Pancakeswap platform, where the Binance Smart Chain/BSC token is listed.
Crypto researcher ZackXBT brought to attention that the wallet benefitting from the scam was hosted on the Binance crypto exchange. Following this, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao(CZ) stated that the exchange’s security team had locked the account linked in the tweet “pending further investigations.”
Commenting on this, Conor Grogan, Coinbase employee and crypto researcher tweeted, “Looks like Robinhood’s social media was hacked,” he noted on Twitter. Grogan further stated that at least ten people had purchased around $1,000 worth of the scam token before the tweet was removed.
As per Robinhood’s spokesperson, the hacker is believed to be a “third party vendor” — who had made posts on Robinhood’s Instagram and Facebook accounts as well.
“At this time, based on our ongoing investigation, we believe the source of the incident was via a third-party vendor”, Robinhood stated
Scammers are now increasingly using Twitter a medium to exploit people. Scammers have been known to hijack popular accounts to dupe Bitcoin owners into sending irreversible transactions to a digital wallet. In the past two years, cybercriminals are impersonated several high-profile Twitter accounts, including former US President Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Apple, Uber, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet, among others.
The latest development also comes amid federal prosecutors seizing majority of the assets listed in FTX’s latest bankruptcy filing from its founder Sam Bankman-Fried earlier this month – including approximately 55 million Robinhood shares that were worth $526 million as of Friday’s closing bell.
