Crypto hackers infiltrated McDonald’s official Instagram account and ran a scam that stole over $700,000.
By exploiting the trust of McDonald’s 5 million followers, the perpetrators promoted a fraudulent meme coin called the “GRIMACE” token on the Solana network. The value of the token briefly rose to $25 million.
McDonald’s regains control of Instagram account
The scam quickly took shape. The cybercriminals, posing as “India X Kr3w,” modified McDonald’s Instagram to send a mocking theft message.
Within just 30 minutes, the value of the fake meme coin “GRIMACE” skyrocketed. However, the hackers cashed in and caused the token to drop to almost zero.
“Sorry my n**ga, India_X_Kr3w just screwed your ass, thanks for the $700k in Solana,” hackers left a message on McDonald’s Instagram after screwing.
Rug pulls like this one involve hyping up cryptocurrencies so that their value increases dramatically before developers withdraw their funds and leave other investors with worthless assets.
Read more: What is a Rug Pull? A Guide to Web3 Fraud
Guillaume Huin’s social media accounts, Senior Marketing Director at McDonald’s, were also apparently hacked. Fake advertisements for GRIMACE were posted on his personal social media accounts. These misleading posts portrayed the GRIMACE token as an official McDonald’s project on the Solana blockchain.
Huin’s account promised that McDonald’s would soon go after GRIMACE holders who listed their Instagram accounts. This tactic gave the scam a veneer of legitimacy and increased its impact.
Blockchain data platform Bubblemaps highlighted that the hackers owned 75% of the GRIMACE supply.
“Multiple addresses were used to buy on Pumpfun at the same time, then they were distributed to about 100 addresses and sold for $700,000,” Bubblemaps said.
Despite many warning signs, Degens traded the GRIMACE meme coin in an attempt to make a quick trade, amassing over $25 million in trading volume in the last 24 hours.
Following the breach, McDonald’s regained control of its Instagram account and deleted all content related to the fraudulent token. Although the platform was restored, the breach left a mark that reflects the ongoing risks in the crypto market.
Read more: Crypto scam projects: How to spot fake tokens
According to a recent report by Immunefi, the crypto sector suffered losses of over $1.19 billion due to hacking and fraud in the first seven months of 2024 alone. This represents a significant increase from the previous year and highlights an upward trend in cybercrime targeting digital assets.
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