McDonald’s Instagram Hacked By Fake ‘Grimace’ Coin Crypto Scammers
Illustration 328125960 © Collaborapix Studio | Dreamstime.com
McDonald’s found itself in the middle of a digital heist when its official Instagram account was hijacked by a group of hackers calling themselves ‘India_X_Kr3w’ on Wednesday, August 21. The attackers didn’t waste any time—they took control of the account and used it to promote a fraudulent cryptocurrency called ‘GRIMACE’ on the Solana network.
The hack unfolded quickly, with the perpetrators altering McDonald’s Instagram bio to taunt observers and flaunt their theft. They had aggressively hyped up the bogus GRIMACE token, causing its value to shoot up to US$25 million within just 30 minutes, only for the price to crash just as fast. This type of scheme, known as a “rug pull,” involves creating and promoting a fake cryptocurrency, driving up its value, and then pulling out all the funds—leaving investors holding the bag with worthless tokens.
Mcdonalds Instagram just got hacked for a pump and dump crypto coin.#solana #McDonalds pic.twitter.com/PMjf2XtYc5
— Jack (@My_Observation) August 21, 2024
The hackers claimed to have pocketed US$700,000 from the scam, though this figure remains unverified.
McDonalds got their Instagram hacked and some guy used it to rug $700,000 from people loooooool pic.twitter.com/xG7FotF05Z
— Stormcell (@StormcellX) August 21, 2024
McDonald’s, on its part, acted swiftly to regain control of its account and apologized to its followers for any offensive language or content that had been posted during the breach. The company emphasized that this was an isolated incident and reassured its fans that steps were being taken to strengthen security and prevent future hacks.
[via New York Post, Game Rant, SiliconANGLE, PYMNTS.com, images via various sources]
