- Hackers took over CoinSwitch’s X account and promoted a fraudulent coin, SWITCH.
- CoinSwitch quickly restored control, erased the post, and reassured users about fund protection.
One of India’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, CoinSwitch, was hit with a cyber attack on Wednesday when hackers hijacked its verified X (formerly Twitter) handle. The hackers used the compromised account to promote a fake token named SWITCH. They falsely claimed it was CoinSwitch’s native token and was about to launch.
The misleading post was posted in the early afternoon Asian time and hinted that SWITCH, which is a Solana-based token, was to go live for trading at 8 AM UTC. Additionally, CoinSwitch regained access to its account an hour later and deleted the phony announcement. This quick action ended the attempt to dupe the community.
CoinSwitch Reinforces Security After Hack
CoinSwitch CEO Ashish Singhal confirmed the breach, assuring users that money and information had not been lost. He assured the community to ignore any Switch rumors, saying that the exchange was not related to the token.
More research showed that the scam token was issued on Pump.fun, a site that has been used to launch dubious memecoins. When discovered, SWITCH had a negligible market capitalization of only $4,075 and traded at $0.000004168. And at the time of writing SWITCH is trading at $0.0005497 which is rallying in green and increased to 3.66% in the last 24 hours. The scammers misrepresented the token as being part of a reward system for leading traders to give their scheme legitimacy.
Cyber attacks targeting crypto exchanges and blockchain projects have been on the rise. The attackers use hijacking social media to spread misleading information and mislead investors. The attack highlights the requirement for improved security controls and education of users to prevent such scams.
CoinSwitch strengthened its security controls to prevent future breaches. Additionally, they urged users to verify official notices only through its website and genuine communication channels. Moreover, the company asked the community to beware of fraudulent schemes and report suspected malpractices.
