Recurring Hacks For Promoting Fake Tokens by Crypto Frauds

• Visa’s Facebook was breached to promote the fraudulent $VISA token, which hit a $6M market cap before crashing.
• Dean Norris’s X account and Nasdaq were also hacked to promote fraudulent tokens, DEAN and STONKS
• These incidents reveal a pattern of targeting verified accounts for crypto scams, underscoring the need for better social media security.

According to the latest reports, Visa became the latest victim of cryptocurrency scammers. The payment giant’s official Facebook account was breached to promote a fraudulent Solana-based token. The compromised Visa account was used to promote a token operating under the handle $VISA.

The account showed classic signs of a “rug pull” scheme – a type of fraud where developers abandon a project after driving up the price. The token’s value surged dramatically to reach a market capitalization of $6 million dollars before collapsing within two hours of its promotion.

The incident parallels a similar attack targeting “Breaking Bad” star Dean Norris’s X account. Hackers took control of Norris’s profile to promote a memecoin named DEAN, which peaked at an $8.43 million market capitalization before plummeting by over 96% to under $60,000 as per Dexscreener data. The actor later confirmed the breach in a January 26 video statement, declaring the DEAN token “a complete, fake scam” and clarifying that he rarely uses the platform.

The attackers in Norris’s case used doctored images showing the actor holding promotional materials for the token. They also created a false social media presence, prompting Norris to explicitly state that he does not maintain a Telegram account and had been unaware of the hack until friends alerted him.

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Recently, the X account of Nasdaq was also hacked to promote a coin called STONKS which surged as high as $80 million before crashing. These incidents reveal a recurring pattern where cybercriminals specifically target verified corporate and celebrity social media accounts to lend credibility to fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes. 

The quick price movements of both tokens – $VISA and DEAN – show how quickly these scams can execute, often completing their cycle before victims or platform moderators can respond effectively. The breaches raise serious questions about social media platform security measures, particularly for high-profile accounts that could be used to influence financial decisions.  

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