Hackers hijack The Sandbox CEO’s Twitter for a fake SAND airdrop

On May 26, unknown individuals gained control of the Twitter account of the CEO metaverse The Sandbox Arthur Madrid, to spread phishing, disguising it as a fake token airdrop.

My Twitter was hacked today. and now is back. Please never click on any link that promote Airdrop or URL and look SCAMMY — and not 100% using our proper and unique URL/domain name : https://t.co/X3rXN9z8z7

— Arthur Madrid (@arthurmadrid) May 26, 2023

The project head later regained access to the profile. He urged people not to click suspicious links or fall for scammers’ tricks.

The Sandbox’s official account also flagged the situation. The company said it was working to block the fraudulent website.

⚠️ Our CEO & Co-Founder Arthur Madrid’s Twitter account has been hacked ⚠️

The hacker is posting a scam / phishing link for a fake airdrop of SAND tokens.

⛔️Do NOT click on the link and instead report the post so it is blocked.

We’re working on getting the site down and fix… pic.twitter.com/sOqzAV5OUT

— The Sandbox (@TheSandboxGame) May 26, 2023

Following the hack of Madrid’s account, the project’s native token SAND began to drift higher. According to CoinGecko, at the time of writing the asset was trading at $0.5473, up 4.2% over 24 hours.

Such incidents are not new for The Sandbox. In February, an unknown gained access to a staff member’s workstation and sent fraudulent emails to platform users. The message mimicked a notification about access to the metaverse and contained malicious links.

In March, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire warned the community about the hacking of the Twitter account of the company’s chief strategy officer Dante Disparte. The attacker posted a message promising a “one-off bonus in the form of an airdrop” for USDC holders.

In April, a hacker gained control of a KuCoin account, leading to losses of $22,628 for users.