In the last 24 hours, users who follow the Ethereum-based staking protocol Rocket Pool’s X account have been confronted with a perplexing situation. Hackers managed to gain control of the account and exploited it to disseminate deceptive information concerning an alleged breach in a smart contract.
Starting from 6.30 UTC on Wednesday, six alarming alerts emerged on the Rocket Pool X account, inaccurately asserting the presence of vulnerabilities in their smart contracts. These warnings urged users to transfer their assets to a new smart contract in the interest of security.
Fake Messages Warning Against Bad Actors Flood In
These messages were posted intermittently, creating a false sense of urgency and raising concerns about malicious actors exploiting the protocol’s smart contracts.
One of the messages asserted, “Bad actors are engaging in fraudulent deposit attacks. Transfer your assets to the new contract below to safeguard them.”
Fortunately, several vigilant users on the Rocket Pool’s X account recognized the scam attempt. For instance, the widely followed account Webacy alerted users to the compromise of Rocket Pool’s account and cautioned, “The provided link leads to a scam. Do not migrate your assets.”
Rocket Pool Issues Warnings Through Other Comms Channels
Rocket Pool itself took steps to alert users through other platforms about the hack of its X account. Many users also joined in by disseminating this information on X (formerly Twitter).
Despite Rocket Pool’s efforts to combat the misinformation, users on X continued to encounter false warnings.
This incident is part of a recent pattern of high-profile social media hacks within the X crypto community, including the compromise of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) account in January.
As of the time of writing, suspicious messages are still present on the Rocket Pool X page, nearly 24 hours after the initial suspicious message appeared. However, at least one post has been marked with a “community note” to inform users that the account has been hacked.
Rocket Pool is a decentralized application (dApp) ranked as the fifth-largest on Ethereum, with a total value locked (TVL) of $3.12 billion.
