Lego’s website was briefly compromised on Friday, October 4th by a cryptocurrency scammer who attempted to trick Lego fans into purchasing a fake cryptocurrency called Lego Coin.
The website promised “secret rewards” to buyers of the fake coins and redirected them to a website accepting payments in Ethereum, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies.
However, Lego fans on Reddit say it took just over an hour for the attacker to be thwarted, and the website was back to normal.
Lego Coin first appeared on Lego’s homepage around 8 a.m. ET on October 5th and was removed about 75 minutes later.
The Lego brand has expanded into everything from movies to video games to amusement parks over the past few decades, but it’s unlikely we’ll see any cryptocurrency projects from it, at least not anytime soon. The iconic Danish toy brand has not announced anything crypto-related so far.
However, the brand published a rather cryptic tweet in March 2021 that could hint at an entry into the NFT (non-fungible token) space.
NFTs are tradable virtual items that utilize some of the same technology as Bitcoin.
The tweet included the hashtag “NFT” and the words “Zeros and 1s but still bricks.” The tweet was deleted shortly after, and the company has not addressed the issue since.
Even big brands can’t be hijacked to promote fake cryptocurrency schemes, and Lego is just one of many companies that have fallen victim.
OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, had one of its official social media channels hijacked earlier this month.
X/Twitter’s “OpenAI Newsroom” account suddenly began promoting a fake cryptocurrency called “$OPEANAI,” directing viewers to malicious links containing phishing scams.
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The scam aimed to drain the wallets of crypto buyers interested in fabricated coins.
Even some of the US government’s most important regulatory agencies have been compromised by crypto fraudsters seeking to inflate the value of cryptocurrencies.
In January, hackers gained access to the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) official Twitter account @SECGov.
Cybercriminals posted that the SEC had approved a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), a type of Bitcoin investment fund.
The post increased Bitcoin’s overall value by billions of dollars, but was quickly deleted.
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About Will McCurdy
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I’m a reporter in charge of weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I had bylined articles for BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media. I picked it up.
I’ve been a PC gamer since the days when I had to manually install games from multiple CD-ROMs. As a reporter, I’m passionate about the intersection of technology and human life. I’ve covered everything from crypto scandals to the art world, conspiracy theories, British politics, Russia and foreign affairs.
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