. The hackers tried to steal the account in order to promote Skulltoons NFT project giveaways by tricking users into clicking malicious links.
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In what ESPN Major League Baseball reporter Jeff Passan called the “biggest news day” of his life, scammers hijacked his Twitter account to promote a nonfungible token (NFT) giveaway. Passan just broke the news about an important agreement between the MLB and the Players Association regarding the international draft.
hey remember that time i got hacked on the biggest news day of my life
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 10, 2022
While his eyes were awaiting the next development from Passan’s account, his profile picture displayed artwork from the NFTs and his bio read “NFT Enthusiast, MLB Insider, Father, Husband, Mod for @skulltoonsNFT, @Azukizen, @thugbirdz.”
The tweets, which were deleted via screenshots, noted that Passan had partnered with Skulltoons to giveaways of the March presale spots for an upcoming drop on March His username was also changed to “Jeff.eth” while his profile picture depicted artwork from the NFTs and his bio read “NFT Enthusiast, MLB Insider, Father, Husband, Mod for @skulltoonsNFT, @Azukizen, @thugbirdz.”
The tweets (which have since been deleted and salvaged via screenshots) noted that Passan had partnered with Skulltoons to giveaway 20 presale spots for an upcoming drop on March 20. To win, you had to click on a suspicious-looking link.
oh no pic.twitter.com/KpkQl1kbiG
— Alex McDaniel (@AlexMcDaniel) March 10, 2022
Following reports of the hack circulating online, the team behind Skulltoons distanced themselves from the hacker’s posts as they warned the community to be wary of scams:
“Looks like Jeff Passan got hacked by someone trying to scam our community… We are not affiliated with Jeff in any capacity. We hope that he’s able to get his Twitter back ASAP.”
Looks like jeffpassan got hacked by someone trying to scam our community as there’s a drive into deep left field by Castellanos and that’ll be a homerun so that’ll make it a 4-0 ballgame
— Shortest Stop (@ShortestStop) March 10, 2022
The hack didn’t last long, with ESPN reportedly moving fast to get Passan’s account back within two hours. Passan made a change to his Twitter background to read “I’m Back” to announce his return. This was in reference to Michael Jordan’s famous quote, which he used to say when he retired to play for the Chicago Bulls.
Hackers often attempt to hijack popular social media accounts in a bid to dupe followers into thinking they are seeing legitimate promotions from people they support. Cointelegraph reported in late January that dozens of YouTube accounts such as BitBoy Crypto, Altcoin Buzz, Box Mining, Floyd Mayweather, Ivan on Tech and The Moon were hacked to promote crypto scams.
