Crypto Twitter’s weekend filled with scams, hacks, and fake events

This weekend in crypto saw several peculiar events unfolding, from a thought-provoking fake summit to prominent Twitter account hacks and discussions on potential technological advancements.

Uniswap fake event

In an extraordinary display of deception, a group in Shenzhen, China, staged an event under the guise of the “First Uniswap Asian Summit” and had a so-called “CEO of Uniswap” in attendance. However, as Hayden Adams, ‘inventor of the Uniswap Protocol,’ stated on Twitter, the event was not associated with Uniswap or Uniswap Foundation and was likely a scam. The scammers even went as far as creating a fork of the Uniswap website, adding Chinese community content while linking to the legitimate Uniswap app.

Peter Schiff’s fake $GOLD token

Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital and renowned Bitcoin antagonist, had his Twitter account hacked, with the hacker promoting an alleged launch of a new cryptocurrency. The tweet encouraged followers to “Claim your $GOLD,” a fake crypto project linked to Schiff’s favorite asset class. Schiff’s son, Spencer Schiff, quickly alerted followers, urging them not to click the link and emphasizing that his father was likely hacked.

XRP fake $LAW token

Pro-XRP lawyer, John Deaton, suffered a phone hack on June 4 amid a relentless cyberattack over several days. CryptoLaw, an account created by the attorney representing XRP token holders in the Ripple SEC lawsuit, responded to the hacker’s tweet from the attorney’s account.

Deaton took proactive measures to communicate with his Twitter followers, utilizing his daughter Jordan Deaton’s Twitter account to notify people of the hack, stating, ” I still do not have access to my Twitter account. Twitter informed me that it could take 1-3 days.”

OpenAI fake $OPENAI token

In another surprising turn, Mira Murati, CTO of OpenAI, fell victim to a hacking incident aimed at promoting a fraudulent cryptocurrency. Trace Cohen, a serial entrepreneur, and investor, shared the news on Twitter, highlighting that AI and technology are only as strong as their weakest link, which often tends to be “a human” element.

The deleted tweet claimed the introduction of a groundbreaking token called “$OPENAI” driven by artificial intelligence-based language models. It encouraged users to visit a link to check their eligibility for an airdrop to their Ethereum addresses.