09.06.2025 23:40
Paraguay's government swiftly denounced a tweet from President Santiago Peña's official X account on Monday, declaring it a fraudulent hack. The false announcement, promising a new $5 million Bitcoin reserve and urging investment, included a Bitcoin address designed to lure unsuspecting investors. This deceptive tactic, unfortunately, isn't uncommon in the volatile world of cryptocurrency.
The government's denial followed the fraudulent post within an hour, stating explicitly that irregular activity suggested unauthorized access to the President's account. A request for further comment from the government's press office remains outstanding. This incident highlights the vulnerability of high-profile social media accounts to sophisticated cyberattacks.
This isn't an isolated incident; high-profile accounts have been compromised repeatedly for similar schemes. Hackers frequently leverage such accounts to disseminate misleading information, promising astronomical returns to entice victims into transferring cryptocurrency to fraudulent addresses. A common tactic involves promoting newly created cryptocurrencies, allowing the hackers to manipulate the market and profit from the subsequent price crash after they sell their holdings.
Previous targets of these scams include various prominent figures and organizations. Examples range from the Indian Supreme Court's YouTube channel used to promote XRP, to the X accounts of Oliver Stone, Yahoo News UK, and Neymar Jr., all exploited to promote meme coins. A particularly large-scale attack in 2020 involved the compromised X accounts of several high-profile individuals and companies, including former US Presidents Obama and Biden, to promote a Bitcoin scam. In contrast to the fraudulent Paraguayan announcement, El Salvador remains the only country in the region to have legally adopted Bitcoin as tender. The government's experience there offers a cautionary tale about the potential risks and vulnerabilities associated with national cryptocurrency initiatives.
