Scams are reaching new heights, with cryptocurrency scams becoming increasingly common. A recent report reveals that McDonald’s Instagram account was hacked to promote a fake cryptocurrency called ‘GRIMACE,’ named after the company’s purple mascot. This incident occurred on August 21st, 2024, with the hacker claiming to have earned approximately $700,000 by promoting it on McDonald’s compromised Instagram account. Some followers, unaware of the scam, clicked on the link in the post, which prompted them to provide their personal information and cryptocurrency wallet address.
Within just 30 minutes of the fake promotion, the value of ‘GRIMACE’ surged to $25 million. Following this spike, the perpetrators began dumping the cryptocurrency in Solana, causing its value to crash to nothing.
This type of scam is known as a ‘Rug Pull,’ where scammers hold 70-80% of the coins and, after a significant increase in value, start selling off their holdings, leading to a rapid collapse in value.
The hacker then changed the bio of McDonald’s Instagram page to read, ‘Sorry mah n–ga you have just been rug pulled by India_X_Kr3 thank you for the $700,000 in Solana.’ In response, McDonald’s issued a statement and provided a comment to the New York Post “We are aware of an isolated incident that impacted our social media accounts earlier today. We have resolved the issue on those accounts and apologize to our fans for any offensive language posted during that time.”
