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If you’ve spent any appreciable amount of time on X, or looked much into the crypto world, you’ll know the platform is a hotbed for crypto scams. Whether hackers are hijacking celebrities’ or corporations’ accounts to promote fake “meme coins,” or celebrities are promoting their own dubious crypto projects, you need to be careful what you click.
Now, X has publicly admitted that it was targeted by a bribery network, which used paid middlemen to try and convince staff to reinstate the banned accounts of crypto scammers. X said the scammers’ activity spread far beyond the platform, and was also active on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Minecraft, and Roblox.
X did not say if any of the bribes succeeded in convincing staff. The platform says legal proceedings are now underway against participants and that it is fully supporting law enforcement. X linked the bribery attempts to a group known as “The Com,” which has been covered by the FBI.
The group, which is English-speaking, is known to attempt to recruit teenagers to promote its scams, allowing it to bypass prosecution by using members under 16, who have face criminal liability in many countries.
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The Com has been implicated in crimes far more serious than crypto scams. The Justice Department recently charged a British teenager it said was associated with Scattered Spider, a group thought to be part of The Com, with a litany of offenses, including allegations that he took part in a cyberattack on the London Underground, which impacted its operations for over a month.
The statement claims the boy was involved in at least 120 cyberattacks, including on the US courts system, and the extortion of dozens of US companies.
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I’m a reporter covering weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I picked up bylines in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.
I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to install games from multiple CD-ROMs by hand. As a reporter, I’m passionate about the intersection of tech and human lives. I’ve covered everything from crypto scandals to the art world, as well as conspiracy theories, UK politics, and Russia and foreign affairs.
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