At least two high-profile crypto industry executives have been targeted by hackers who stole their WeChat accounts, prompting others to warn millions of followers about the risks.
The latest victim is Yi He, the co-founder and newly appointed co-CEO of the largest crypto exchange, Binance.
On Wednesday, she confirmed that her WeChat account was hacked to promote an obscure memecoin, adding that she hasn't been using this platform for a long time. The account has since been recovered, and Yi He promised to personally send BNB, the native token of Binance, to those who fell victim to the scam.
The co-CEO also emphasized that there won't be similar compensations in the future should similar hacks happen again.
According to blockchain analysts at Lookonchain, the hack was designed to promote the Mubarakah memecoin. The hacker created two new wallets and spent around $19,000 to buy more than 21 million of the token.
"After the pump, the hacker has already sold 11.95M $Mubarakah for 43,520 $USDT and still holds 9.21M $Mubarakah($31K), for a total profit of $55K," the analysts said.
Meanwhile, another co-founder of Binance and former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), urged 10.5 million of his followers to stay vigilant as "Web 2 social media security is not that strong." He expressed hope that his account won't be the next to get hacked, as he hasn't used WeChat "for many years."
On November 30th, another high-profile crypto player, Justin Sun, entrepreneur and founder of the Tron (TRX) blockchain, also confirmed that his WeChat account was hacked.
Following Yi He, Sun said he plans to build "a small team" to investigate the hacks.
Earlier this year, Yu Xuan, the founder of the crypto security specialist SlowMist, verified a story about a WeChat takeover in which attackers used leaked login credentials to trick two "frequent contacts," even those with minimal interactions, such as group chats, into sharing a 6-digit verification code, thereby enabling crypto scams.
Yu Xuan urged users not to randomly add people on WeChat, to change passwords, and to pay attention to alerts about potential risks, as scammers often attempt their crimes at night while victims are asleep.
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