Pro-XRP lawyer John Deaton’s Twitter account was hacked on June 4 and used to promote a malicious LAW token.
Deaton’s organization, Crypto Law, tweeted that his account had been under “a relentless cyberattack over several days.” The prominent XRP lawyer alerted his followers to the hack through his daughter’s account, urging them to report the incident.
“John Deaton’s phone has been hacked today after a relentless cyberattack over several days. This is NOT a legitimate tweet. His account has been taken over. He has taken immediate steps to remedy the situation.”
Pro-Ripple Lawyer Account Hacked on Birthday
The timing of the hack is interesting as it came on his birthday. This was likely a calculated move by the hackers to add legitimacy to their tweets, as they were offering a fake giveaway of the LAW token. According to the scammers, the token “introduces an innovative approach to tokenization and DeFi, centered around crypto regulation and jurisdiction.”
Meanwhile, several prominent XRP community members immediately warned others to be wary of the scam. Additionally, Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz, reiterated these warnings, adding that:
“[t]he site is a rip off of https://fuse.io and is broken in many ways. Registration is anonymous. The only evidence this is a thing is from John’s Twitter.”
Deaton is a popular figure on Crypto Twitter, especially within the XRP community. He has over 200,000 followers and a solid reputation for covering the ongoing lawsuit between Ripple and the SEC. The lawyer led a class action lawsuit against the SEC, alleging the agency’s enforcement action against Ripple had harmed XRP investors.
Phishing Scams Get More Daring
Meanwhile, the incident highlights the daring nature of most crypto scammers. While other forms of crypto theft appear to be trending down, phishing scams are gaining momentum. BeInCrypto reported how scam-as-a-service providers earned over $7 million through their illegal attacks.
The scammers use multiple means, including hacking the Twitter accounts of famous individuals, hacking Discord servers of projects, and spamming posts with phishing links.
In most cases, phishing links offer airdrop for an existing project or promote a new one. Users are usually required to connect their wallets, resulting in them losing their funds.
The LAW token website has a similar interface to most phishing sites and requires users to connect their wallets. There are no reports of anyone connecting their wallets to the scam site or losing funds at the time of writing.
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