- Through a hack on McDonald’s Instagram, the Grimace token’s market cap surged to $30 million before plummeting to $1 million, highlighting the volatility of such scams.
- The hackers compromised McDonald’s and its Market Director’s Instagram accounts, lending credibility to the scam.
- This incident mirrors previous crypto fraud involving the Grimace token on the Binance Smart Chain, emphasizing the trend of exploiting cultural icons for scams.
However, in a recent event, McDonald’s official Instagram account was hacked, and the hackers posted a link to a fake Solana-based cryptocurrency account. This scam, which involved a token known as Grimace, attracted attention as soon as it went public, similar to the Grimace-themed milkshake that McDonald’s introduced in the previous year. Yet, what was initially deemed a threatening hack evolved into an investors’ scarecrow as the token’s market cap surged to $30 million before plummeting again.
The hack occurred on McDonald’s verified Instagram page, where the attackers posted about a new cryptocurrency token called “Grimace.” This new token quickly gained widespread adoption and, within a few days, had amassed a market capitalization of $30 million. The hackers also targeted the Instagram account of McDonald’s Market Director Guillaume Huin, who unwittingly promoted the token by stating that it was part of McDonald’s experiment on Solana.
The Aftermath of the Scam
After the reports that brought the pump-and-dump scheme to light, the total market capitalization of the fake token decreased from $30 million to $1m, moreover, actually scaring its users after the suspects are said to have earned $700,000 worth of SOL tokens. However, since they deleted the posts within several minutes, the harm was already done: this may make the audience learn about what is included in digital assets and why one has to embrace cyber security.
Surprisingly, this is not the first time a character named “Grimace” is associated with some form of cryptocurrency. In September of the previous year, just like the famous McDonald’s Twitter post, a BSC-based token known as Grimace Coin emerged. Initially dismissed as a meme, the token rose considerably in value only to plummet later, similar to the Solana fraud.
Reading this McDonald’s Instagram hack story is such a wake-up call on how social media platforms can be used to perpetrate a simple con. With the increased adoption of cryptocurrencies, occurrences such as these underscore the importance of guarding against such scams and ensuring adequate protection measures are in place for firms and customers.
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