OpenAI CTO’s Twitter hacked, shilling ‘scam’ crypto airdrop

Crypto Twitter was flooded with warnings from users on May 2 after the Twitter account of Mita Murati, the chief technology officer of artificial intelligence firm OpenAI, was seemingly hacked —  promoting a “scam” cryptocurrency airdrop.

On June 2, Murati’s account tweeted what appeared to be a phishing link promising an airdrop of a purported ERC-20 token OPENAI named after the firm that created ChatGPT. 

Murati has 126,200 followers on Twitter and has a verified account on the platform. The post was live for about an hour and viewed 79,600 times and retweeted 83 times before it was deleted.

The tweet’s author had restricted who could reply to the tweet so others were unable to easily warn the link was a scam.

Related: Crypto phishing scams: How users can stay protected

Some Twitter users theorize that Murati was a victim of a SIM-swapping attack.

We don’t know what’s going on yet (SIM attack?)

But NO WAY this is really Mira. This is a scam. https://t.co/zlp4SsR41l

— Mark Jeffrey (@markjeffrey) June 2, 2023

The website shared in the tweet is sophisticated and has seemingly directly copied the layout and site design of a real project called ChainGPT with some very slight tweaks — mainly its prompt to connect a crypto wallet.

A security researcher from blockchain security firm Beosin told Cointelegraph the site uses an available crypto wallet draining kit that “lures visitors into signing requests.”

“Once the request is signed, the attacker will transfer NFTs and ERC-20 tokens out of the victim’s wallet,” Beosin’s researcher added.

Cointelegraph contacted Murati and OpenAI for comment on how the Twitter account was breached but did not immediately receive a response.

Update (June 2,  3:30 am UTC): This article has been updated with further information and a comment from Beosin.

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