Hackers altered the British Armyโ€™s Twitter page to make it seem like it was associated with The Possessed NFT project.

Both the British Armyโ€™s Facebook and Twitter accounts were hacked and used to promote cryptocurrency scams, the UK Ministry of Defence confirmed on Sunday. Itโ€™s unclear when exactly hackers took over the two accounts, but they both appear to be back to normal now.

โ€œWe are aware of a breach of the Armyโ€™s Twitter and YouTube accounts and an investigation is underway,โ€ the Ministry of Defence Press Office said on Twitter. โ€œThe Army takes information security extremely seriously and is resolving the issue.โ€

Hackers hijacked the British Armyโ€™s Twitter page, swapping out the organizationโ€™s profile picture, bio, and cover photo to make it seem like it was associated with The Possessed NFT collection. The account sent out various retweets for NFT giveaways, and its pinned tweet linked users to a fake NFT minting website.

The videos on the British Armyโ€™s YouTube channel were replaced with old livestreams featuring Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey.

Bad actors also stripped the British Armyโ€™s YouTube channel, deleting all its videos, as well as changing its name and profile picture to resemble the legit investment firm Ark Invest. Hackers replaced the British Armyโ€™s videos with a series of old livestreams featuring former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. These livestreams were previously aired as part of The B Word conference held by Ark Invest last June, but hackers added an overlay that encouraged users to participate in a crypto scam. The channel aired four livestreams at once, with some of them racking up thousands of viewers.

As Web3 Is Going Just Great blogger Molly White points out, the scammers who took over the British Armyโ€™s accounts carried out their scheme with some of the same tactics used in the recent past. In March, hackers took over the Twitter account belonging to MKLeo, one of the worldโ€™s top Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players, and used it to peddle phony NFTs made to look like they were associated with The Possessed. Just two months after that incident, scammers managed to steal $1.3 million using the same Ark Invest livestreams that were repurposed for this hack.

Twitter spokesperson Rocio Vives told The Verge that the British Armyโ€™s account Twitter โ€œhas since been locked and secured,โ€ and that โ€œaccount holders have now regained access and the account is back up and running.โ€ Google didnโ€™t immediately respond to The Vergeโ€™s request for comment.

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