Hackers Use Kevin O’Leary’s Twitter Account to Promote Crypto Scam

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What happened

The Twitter account for Kevin O’Leary, a.k.a. Mr. Wonderful of Shark Tank fame, @kevinolearytv, appeared to be hacked by crypto scammers Thursday. It sent out multiple now-deleted tweets about a crypto giveaway of 5,000 Bitcoin (BTC) and 15,000 Ethereum (ETH), although the accompanying image listed 5,000 ETH. The links to these giveaways prompted respondents to send their own cryptocurrency funds first to verify their wallet address.

These scams typically involve a fake Twitter account impersonating the celebrity in question. In this case, hackers were able to access O’Leary’s real account and send out a series of tweets. This included a tweet saying, “My accounts was not hacked! Last night I said on TV that I was going to do a giveaway. Enjoy,” as recorded by Jordan Major of Finbold in an early report on the hack.

So what

Earlier this year, crypto scam losses since 2021 hit $1 billion. Cryptocurrency scams are common, and as more people have started investing through crypto apps, fraud reports have skyrocketed. 

Crypto scams target unsuspecting people, and you could be one of them. A crypto giveaway scam, like the one in question here, is a popular type of scam designed to get people to send scammers their cryptocurrency. Scammers impersonate a celebrity online, normally choosing one associated…