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McDonald’s hackers pull $700,000 scam with fake meme coin

GrafaGrafa2024/08/22 07:45
By:Liezl Gambe

Hackers have exploited McDonald’s Instagram account to execute a rug pull involving a fake meme coin.

The scam, orchestrated by cybercriminals identifying themselves as "India X Kr3w," involved promoting a fraudulent token named “GRIMACE” on the Solana network.

By leveraging McDonald’s large following of 5 million users, the hackers managed to artificially inflate the token’s value to $25 million.

The deception unfolded rapidly.

The hackers took over McDonald’s Instagram account and posted false information about the GRIMACE token, claiming it was an official project associated with McDonald’s.

Within 30 minutes, the token's value surged dramatically before the perpetrators cashed out, causing the token’s price to plummet to nearly zero.

The hackers left a message on McDonald’s Instagram, acknowledging their actions: “Sorry mah n**ga you have just been rug pulled by India_X_Kr3w thank you for the $700,000 in Solana.”

This message highlighted the rug pull tactic, where scammers hype a cryptocurrency to inflate its value before withdrawing their funds, leaving investors with worthless assets.

The breach also extended to Guillaume Huin, McDonald’s Senior Marketing Director, whose personal social media accounts were compromised.

False advertisements promoting the GRIMACE token were posted on his accounts, further legitimising the scam and amplifying its impact.

Blockchain data revealed that the hackers controlled 75% of the GRIMACE supply and used multiple addresses to execute the scam.

Despite numerous red flags, traders flocked to the token, leading to over $25 million in trading volume within a day.

McDonald’s has since regained control of its Instagram account and removed all content related to the fraudulent token.

The incident underscores growing risks in the crypto market, with recent reports indicating that the sector has lost over $1.19 billion from hacks and scams in the first seven months of 2024.

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Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.

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