X Admits Staff Were …
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If you’ve spent any appreciable amount of time on X, 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 says it was targeted by a bribery network that used paid middlemen to try and convince X staff to reinstate the banned accounts of crypto scammers, though X says this activity also happens on rival platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Minecraft, and Roblox.
X did not say if any of its staff accepted the bribes. “Legal proceedings are underway against participants, and we’re fully supporting law enforcement,” it tweeted from its Global Government Affairs account.
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X linked the bribery attempts to a group known as “The Com,” which the FBI highlighted in July as a “growing and evolving online threat group.” The English-speaking group recruits teenagers to promote its scams in an attempt to bypass prosecution.
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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 allegedly 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 courtd 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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