Fake Azuki NFT Airdrop Posted on Hacked Indian Government’s Twitter Account

• Official Twitter accounts of Indian government agencies, officials, and political offices were hacked over the weekend

• After infiltrating the verified accounts, the hacker attempted to scam users by posting a fake NFT airdrop related to the famous collection – Azuki

•  Authorities have since regained control of all affected accounts

An unidentified attacker tried to scam users with a dubious NFT airdrop after hacking several verified Twitter accounts over the past few days. The hacker lured unsuspecting collectors by leveraging popular names in the non fungible token space like Azuki and Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC). 

The first attack supposedly involved the official account of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who governs India’s fourth-largest state by land area – Uttar Pradesh.  According to a tweet from the state government, the hacker gained access to Adityanath’s verified profile Saturday (April 9, 2022) and published some tweets.

Reports also claim that the Chief Minister’s office account changed profile photos from a picture of Adityanath to an NFT from the BAYC collections.

Following the incident, Uttar Pradesh authorities opened a case with the Cyber Crimes Police Unit in Lucknow. As of the time of writing this report, ongoing investigations have not yielded any concrete results. 

Shortly after, the official Uttar Pradesh state government handle was also compromised. The account published a tweet on Monday (April 11, 2022) asking users to claim free NFTs from a link. The post redirected users to a shady website under the domain name ‘beanz.army’. An excerpt from the site reads:

We have decided to give back to our community by distributing extra airdrop claims to holders of Azuki and other NFTs. Claim your airdrop of BEANZ and become involved with the Azuki ecosystem using the interactive Azuki NFT.

ecosystem using the interactive Azuki NFT”

While it remains unclear whether or not the attacks were launched by the same individual or group, authorities claim that all compromised accounts have been recovered and stressed that those responsible could face strict penalties.

Cyber Criminals Attempt Crypto-related Scam on Twitter

Indeed, the social media platform has been leveraged by illicit actors in a number of crypto-related and NFT scams. Back in 2020, multiple handles owned by high-profile individuals including Joe Biden and Elon Musk were reportedly hacked. 

The attackers proceeded to scam unsuspecting users of over $100,000 in Bitcoin.